


King of My Heart

by fetchmeabook



Category: The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Angst, Engaged, Fluff, M/M, Meet-Cute, Not beta read we die like men here, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, SO MUCH FLUFF, What Happened in Malta (The Old Guard), drowning in fluff, no one dies, not even temporarily
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-14
Updated: 2021-02-01
Packaged: 2021-03-07 05:29:23
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 14
Words: 36,732
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26467981
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fetchmeabook/pseuds/fetchmeabook
Summary: 'Actor Joe al-Kaysani Spotted in Malta with Mystery Man.' The public didn’t know about Nicky, that was what he wished for. Joe was all too happy to comply with his love’s wishes. Every so often, when they weren’t so careful, Joe’s ‘Mystery Man’ would make an appearance in the tabloids. No one ever got a clear photograph of him however.____________For 10 years, Joe and Nicky managed to keep their relationship away from the public. However, right as they are about to break their silence someone else does so for them. They are left to grapple with the fact that their own narrative was taken from their hands. As they're attempting to figure out what their next option is, it seems that the universe has other plans for them.
Relationships: Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova
Comments: 138
Kudos: 661





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This all started because of that one image of Nicky helping a little kid during wartime on Copley's wall.

Neither one kept up with the headlines anymore. What use was there in reading speculation about one’s own life? That didn’t mean others didn’t from time to time. An article from Nile and a ridiculous tweet from Booker were just things that came in every so often. Occasionally, Joe would read them, more often than not, Nicky on the other hand would just quietly laugh before they were deleted. Andy, Quynh, and Lykon had long since stopped sending them the ridiculous news stories the paparazzi came up with.

The last one that had been sent was from Nile, accompanied by numerous laughing face emojis. _Actor Joe al-Kaysani Spotted in Malta with Mystery Man._ The public didn’t know about Nicky, that was what he wished for. Joe was all too happy to comply with his love’s wishes. Every so often, when they weren’t so careful, Joe’s ‘Mystery Man’ would make an appearance in the tabloids. No one ever got a clear photograph of him however. Both Joe and Nicky fully expected the press to hound him tonight with questions about the mysterious man he had been spotted with. The Malta trip had only been two weeks previously.

\---

Nicky was sat on a couch with a book at their New York residence while Joe was off doing yet another premiere, such was the life of the secret lover of a Hollywood A-lister. He was on a well-deserved break from working and had made sure no one was to call him unless the situation was dire and immediate. Even if he wasn’t out in the field as his job had so regularly sent him, Nicky was also taking a short break from the children’s ward where he spent time when in the city. Earlier, Nicky had been in the ward helping with the nurses and doctors taking care of the children there and the little ones had all been absolutely enamored with him. In reality, the children were always enamored with Nicky. Whether it was his stories of far off countries he visited while on call with Doctors Without Borders or stories he would read to them while they waited for their treatments, a number were also fascinated by just hearing his accent, Nicky had quickly become a favorite at the ward when he had started.

He didn’t spend the whole day at the ward, no one would have let him anyway. Before his vacation in Malta with Joe it had been three months of work in South Sudan while Joe was working on yet another film. As soon as filming had wrapped and Nicky was allowed to leave, the pair had met up in Malta. When they came to New York and Nicky had returned to the children’s ward, more than a few of the patients and staff were enthralled by the little gold band that now called Nicky’s left ring finger home. That first day back was one of the few times he had shared stories of a time that didn’t involve helping other children, not that any of them got a fully detailed version of the Malta trip anyway. Not even Lykon had the full story, he’d have been vehemently against the details anyway.

As the day turned to night and the dark drew in, Nicky’s book fell from his hand as he slowly nodded off to sleep.

\---

Joe had no real interest in being there. Yes, Nile would also be there which meant he at least had someone else that understood why he didn’t want to be there but he’d rather have been home with Nicky. Once again he’d have to field off questions about the ‘Mystery Man’ as the tabloids had dubbed his fiancé. Just thinking that Nicky was now his fiancé hit Joe with an overwhelming amount of love for the other man. His and Nicky’s story was pure and private, and they wanted to keep it that way.

He hadn’t even stepped on the carpet yet when he felt someone come up behind him, he hoped it wasn’t a newbie journalist that wanted to get the first questions of the night in.

“You look like you want to be somewhere else.” Nile. It was Nile that had come up behind him. Joe thanked whatever deity might be listening for sending her instead of anyone else, except Nicky. But, he had been sent Nicky in a different way long before. “This’ll be over before you know it and then you can go back to your _fiancé.”_

Joe couldn’t help but smile at that.

“I still can’t believe it took you this long to ask him.” Joe had been cast in the first piece Nile had written and the pair had quickly become friends, it helped that they both had an affinity for art. It had also helped that Nicky and the rest of their little close friend group had instantly loved her.

Joe dropped his head and let out an airy laugh. Nicky had told him in Malta, after Joe had proposed, if he had asked the day after he had met him for his hand in marriage he would have said yes in a heartbeat. And the Nicky back then had been much different from the Nicky now, yet still he was willing to marry Joe without hesitation.

“Come on, lets’ get this over with,” Nile pulled him along to the carpet. Other cast members were already ahead of them being hounded by the press, Joe was not looking forward to this. While he did have a flair for the dramatic, and his close friends all knew that at any given moment he was more than willing to give an overly romantic speech to declare his love for Nicky, he was beginning to hate doing carpets more and more as the years went on. “Just get through the carpet, at least some of the showing, and then we can escape,” Nile wanted to leave just as badly as Joe.

Joe took her arm as he spoke. “Let’s go face the firing squad.” Nile knew he wanted to say, _Let the questioning begin._ This wouldn’t be the first time that the press wanted to question him about Nicky.

It was a source of amazement to Nile, just to watch Joe flit between answering questions about the movie and his ‘no comment’s when asked about the mystery man.

“Joe, why were you in Malta?”

“Joe, who were you with?”

“Mr. al-Kaysani, who was the man you were seen with?”

“Was this the same person from before?”

“Are you dating?”

“Who is he?”

“Who is he?”

“Who is he?”

There were some questions that Joe didn’t even know how to answer, so he threw the paparazzi a ‘no comment’ in response. Every time they asked who the ‘Mystery Man’ was Joe was floored. Not because he didn’t know what to do, he planned on keeping his word to Nicky about not saying anything, but because he had no idea how to even begin to tell them who Nicky was. How does one accurately say that the man he had been seen with was the center of his universe. He was the light of his life and warmth when he felt like the vast chill of space was closing in on him. How was he supposed to tell a stranger that Nicky was his home? How would a stranger be able to understand that he was everything to Joe, that Nicky was all and more in ways no one else could understand? Some things were meant to be kept secrets between people that the outside world should never know because they wouldn’t understand.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know what I said about there might be a while before this is updated....that was before yesterday's statistics zoom though.

Joe and Nile had managed to sneak out of the theater halfway through the film. In order to avoid any suspicion, they had taken a cab back to Joe and Nicky’s place where Nile fully intended to crash for the night. Their spare bedroom was practically hers at that point anyway, given just how many times she had slept there instead of going home.

The lights were out by the time they arrived. Joe quietly unlocked the front door and made sure not to make a sound when they entered. When they had reached the kitchen, Joe gently set his suit jacket over the back of a bar stool as he looked out to the darker side of the room. There wasn’t a doubt in his mind that Nicky was asleep on the couch. Nile had already wandered off to the spare room. After Nicky returned home from an extended overseas assignment it was always a shot in the dark whether or not he’d actually sleep through the night, the normally light sleeper would be wide awake on a moment’s notice. Joe hated that he’d have to wake him up just to get him to go to bed instead of spending the night on the couch. While it wasn’t an uncomfortable couch, they had both made sure of that when it had been purchased and both Andy and Booker could attest to its comfort from their many stays on it, Joe didn’t want to miss an opportunity to hold his Nicky. He’d missed three months’ worth of nights and he’d be damned if he missed another because of a couch.

Joe moved quietly around the other pieces of furniture in the room so to not wake Nicky just yet. In the moonlight he could see the spine of a book reflecting off the ground from where it had seemingly fallen from Nicky’s hand. He picked it up off the ground, marking the page with the inward fold of the book cover, and set it on the coffee table. Joe quietly roused Nicky, “ _Habibi,_ _destati,_ it’s time for bed.”

All he got was a groan in return, it seemed like Nicky’s sleeping habits might have been evening out again. Joe set a light kiss on his forehead. At their closeness he could feel the change in Nicky’s breathing. Joe moved so that he could meet his love’s eyes. “I’ll carry you if I have to,” not that Joe minded, it gave him another excuse to have Nicky in his arms. To Joe’s dismay, Nicky sat up.

He was mostly silent as Joe ushered him back to their bedroom, the only sounds he seemed capable of making were the shuffle from his feet on the rug and a grumble every so often at the displeasure of being woken up. Joe was just happy he was now sleeping more than just an hour or two at a time. While he knew that Nicky loved working with children and doing what he could for those less fortunate, Joe couldn’t help but worry about the toll everything took on Nicky himself. While Nicky had been away, several cast and crew had asked him why he seemed so distant. He had simply been a body taking up space then while his heart was an ocean away.

Joe made sure to remember to thank Nile in the morning, she had already turned down the bed for both them. Nile, as well as the rest of their little found family, was well aware that Nicky was more than willing to fall asleep on top of a made up bed while his sleeping habits adjusted. Joe stepped away from Nicky as he went to go change out of his evening wear. While Nicky had already been wearing the old cotton lounge set that Joe thought should have been retired years ago, but he could not bring himself to tell him because he knew Nicky loved it, so Joe had found there was no need to pester him into putting on proper night clothes. By the time Joe had changed and returned to Nicky, he found the other man under the blankets and in a nest of pillows sound asleep. He stood back for a second and took in the sight that was Nicky, bathed in the moonlight and dimmed lights that crept into their bedroom window. Joe had to stop himself from grabbing the nearest sketchbook to draw his love. Instead, Joe went around to the other side of the bed and climbed in behind Nicky. He felt his other half let out a deep breath as Joe’s arm came to encircle him. Joe nuzzled into the back of Nicky’s neck before drifting off to sleep as well.

\---

When Joe woke the next morning, he was beyond grateful that not only had Nicky managed to sleep soundly through the rest of the night but that he was still carefully tucked away in his arms. If the brightness was anything to go off of, it couldn’t have been any earlier than ten in the morning. Joe was content where he was, stuck in bed with Nicky in his arms.

Nicky began to stir awake not too long after. “Morning, _habib albi,”_ Joe whispered in his ear, just as he had texted Nicky every morning he had been in South Sudan. In a sleep ridden voice, Nicky responded.

“ _Buongiorno, amore mio.”_

Nicky turned around in Joe’s arms so that he could face the other man. If Joe couldn’t help himself and had to kiss Nicky the moment he saw that sleepy smile of his, well that was just between him and Nicky.

“You slept well?” Nicky, a soul on never ending kindness, asked him.

“I should be asking you that, _habibi._ But, I always sleep well with you in my arms.”

Nicky closed his eyes once more, still smiling. Joe resituated himself so that he was laying on his back, Nicky didn’t miss a beat with laying his head on Joe’s chest. He couldn’t see the look of love and adoration on Joe’s face but he knew it was there. Joe felt Nicky’s mumble of words before his brain could register what he had said. “You incurable romantic.”

“Only for you, _ya amar,_ only for you.”

\---

Neither Nicky nor Joe wanted to get out of bed, so they remained until the tell-tale signs that Nile was still there began to emerge. Nicky, still able to be wide awake on a moment’s notice, was instantly torn from his little bubble with Joe as he sat up and alert. Joe had forgotten to tell him that Nile was there. Before Nicky could jump out of bed, Joe caught his hand to hold him back. “It’s just Nile.” He felt all the panic and sudden tension in Nicky leave him.

“We should get up for the day,” Joe could hear in Nicky’s voice that his whole heart was not in favor of that. He’d have rather stayed in bed all day with Nicky anyway, as he had for most of their Malta trip, but he knew there was some truth to Nicky’s words. Begrudgedly, Nicky tried to pull himself away from Joe. Joe had other ideas. He, with Nicky’s hand still in his, pulled the other man closer in order to give him a proper morning kiss. It had become a habit now, starting not long after they met in Jerusalem, that every morning Joe had a chance to kiss Nicky he would. Originally it had been out of fear to never see each other again but had eventually become a promise of love to one another that was repeated over and over again. With one hand still holding Nicky’s, Joe brought his other to gently hold the back of his neck. As always, the litany of love poems he’d written for him over the years played in his head, none of them had ever managed to describe Nicky perfectly or seem to have the right words for how loved he was. Nicky, in Joe’s eyes, was completely and utterly indescribable. No words in any language could encapsulate just how perfect everything that is Nicky was.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For those wanting to know:
> 
> Habib albi- Love of my Life  
> Ya amar- My Moon
> 
> Buongiorno, amore mio- Good morning, my love
> 
>   
> Cheers!  
> Loki


	3. Chapter 3

Nile was used to the setup of their kitchen. All the cups had their place and the silverware in its designated drawer, everything had a place and purpose. Even the swords by the door. An elegant scimitar on one side and a rigid longsword on the other, no one could say that Joe and Nicky’s place lacked character. As she made her coffee for the morning, a brew that she liked always seemed to be at their place and she had a sneaking suspicion that it was because of Nicky, Nile pondered on whatever crossed her mind. At the premiere she had watched as Joe was inundated with highly personal questions, more so than any questions about the movie, and had tried to step in when she thought that they might have been getting too invasive for him. Joe hadn’t let her though and had stood his ground. She and him always stuck together on carpets, it was easier to face an onslaught of cameras when you had someone who knew the truth by your side. But, last night’s questions had been particularly brutal.

On the carpet Joe and her had been separated, both of them had been left exposed in that short time. While she had been asked about why she had written the film and what were influences on it, and what seemed as every other actor was being asked about their characters and the story, Joe had had to deal with more accusations and the brigade of questions surrounding the mysterious man. It had seemed that the instant Hollywood had fallen in love with Joe’s million watt smile and carefree yet gentle nature they were also dead set on painting a false image on who he was as a person. They saw his smile and assumed he could get anyone and that his carefree personality meant he could flirt and charm his way into anyone’s bed. While he might have been both flirty and charming, as well as carefree, there were some aspects of his personality that were reserved for the eyes of those he called family. That smile and laugh that Hollywood thought was his way of flirting with every leading lady was just his way of expressing himself. Nile had seen his flirtatiousness with Nicky and it was nothing like anything Hollywood could create. There was a beauty and intimacy there that, every time she saw them together, made her think that they had known each other a thousand years and their souls had simply been split from the same entity at the beginning of everything. Nile had seen many a screenplay written by others that had tried to get across the beauty and intimacy of a relationship like Joe and Nicky’s, yet they had never managed to make it feel believable. The inherent beauty was something they had never borne witness to and in turn could do it no justice. No one needed to know of the story she had written about them just yet.

Last night Nile had only heard snippets of the questions Joe had been asked after they had been separated. One had had the audacity to insinuate that he was dating Quynh, whose wife would have been infuriated by the accusation since they had been seen together in public, and Nile had heard him laugh at the question. It wasn’t often that the wild accusations allowed Joe to just laugh at the pure absurdity of them. There were numerous occasions where the paparazzi had gotten photos with Joe and Quynh or Joe and Andy and they had assumed he was dating one of the women. Nile wasn’t sure which time the reporter had been asking about last night. She had also overheard on reporter talking to another about how rude Joe was for not answering anything about the mystery man. The woman had seemed polite, to an extent, from a distance but had become a vile creature the minute Joe had left her. She must have been one of those reporters that took a single line and blew everything out of proportions or simply made it up as she went along.

Nile was stood with her back to the counter and cup of coffee in hand when both Joe and Nicky walked in. As usual, Joe was his sluggish morning self while Nicky was at least a little more awake. Fully awake was not a phrase she’d have used to describe either of them in that instant. “Morning, Ni,” Nicky muttered as he looked for any ingredients to a decent breakfast that he could find in the refrigerator. Looking at them, anyone else might have assumed that Joe was making it difficult for Nicky as he had his arms wrapped around the other man’s waist and his chin resting on his shoulder but Nile had seen this particular morning sight often enough to know that this was a regular part of their morning ritual.

She watched as Nicky gave up his search for food when Joe nuzzled into the back of his neck.

\---

They had a small balcony that looked over the street below, it was just big enough to fit a table and a few dainty chairs. Nile sat across from Nicky and Joe at that table, her feet kicked up on the vacant chair. There was a bench seat that the two men had taken up residence in, Nicky tucked away in Joe’s arms as he always seemed to be. There was an effortless beauty to the way they were with one another, gentle and loving in such intimate ways that even looking in their direction felt like an obstruction of privacy. Like so many other moments, Nile carded away the image of them in each other’s arms for later when she was at home working on her secret script. No matter how many time she wrote a scene with characters that were inspired by Nicky and Joe they feel like just that, inspired by. Nile’s erased countless scenes because of that. They always feel inspired by but never reflecting the love she’s watched before her eyes.

\---

Nicky had his own cup in hand, though now it was long empty, and his body was leaned back onto his fiancé. Thinking of Joe as his fiancé still felt like a strange concept to him. They had been together for so long that it felt like there was no change at all yet at the same time everything had changed. Joe, Yusuf, the absolute love of his life, was his and always would be; a little piece of paper would never change what he knew in his heart of hearts.

“…they kept asking and asking and asking, _habibi._ Every time they see even a glimpse of you they question who you are, but I don’t know how to tell them that you are the center of the universe and the universe all in one…”

Nicky was only half listening to Joe go on about the carpet last night. All he could pick up on was the eloquent and constant declarations of love that were being directed at him. Nicky was a man drunk on love.

“…and that one woman, that bitch, she tried to say you were a casual hook up every so often…”

He had heard it all before. What the media insinuated about Joe and what they speculated about the brunet man they’re seen with him on a few occasions. The first time they had been spotted together was in a café in Paris and a week later in Rome. Tabloids had gone crazy, it had been the only time they’d ever speculated a meaningful relationship between the two men. After that they had tried to be more careful. Joe’s career had been young then and he had not wanted to have the pressure of the public put his love for Nicky in jeopardy. He had known since the beginning where his heart was guiding him but there were still instances in those early days where he had been terrified that the spotlight might drive them apart. Nicky on the other hand had been putting himself through medical school at the time, after the ordeal that had been the series of difficult decisions made in Jerusalem. At the time his parents had yet to come around to him, it had taken years but they finally were able to in the long run. Between Joe’s spotlight growing and Nicky’s schooling picking up they agreed that it would be for the best it the public did not know about them. So, they never spoke a word.

“…how could that bitch even think that, my moon? How…”

In recent years, however, Nicky had begun to question if they should keep quiet still. He was firm in his decision early on, but now they were stable. No longer were they just Joe and just Nicky, now they were Joe&Nicky or Yusuf&Nicolò depending on who you asked. Back then the world had felt fragile but now it was beautiful.

“…They’re all just so rude to you. Whenever they so much as think they’ve seen you they always insinuate that there’s nothing there. They think that you are just my once in a while, casual fuck. What do they know? They know nothing…”

Suddenly Nicky’s head was swimming in possibilities as his imagination ran rampet. Joe publicly saying that Nicky was his partner. Him declaring the other man was his intended, beloved, lover, and husband. Joe was always one of grand declarations of love and Nicky had just learned to bask in them over the years, there was no use in trying to get him to stop. The pair of them being open with one another on the streets, not giving a damn about if the cameras saw. Knowing Joe and his playfulness, he’d probably make sure they got some ridiculous photo of them avoiding the camera. Joe taking Nicky to a red carpet premiere, or actually going to The Academy as his date instead of Nile going with him. For the past three years, designers had been trying to get Joe to go with them to the MET Gala. And, for three years he turned them down. He had told them that it would be a scheduling nightmare for him to attend. The truth was that he refused to go if Nicky hadn’t been invited as well. They didn’t know about Nicky so he was not extended an invitation, therefore Joe refused to go. Instead they’d watch some entertainment network critique the Gala’s carpet in real time from their living room and wait for Nile to make her grand appearance. Nile was always invited and always made it to the best dressed list. In rare moments he could even imagine, one day, the two of them with two little kids they’d adopt like they talked off and on about for years. And to the public’s eyes they’d be Joe and Nicky’s two little darlings, not just Joe’s and not the mystery man’s kids. But, that would be a pipeline dream while they were still hiding their relationship. Kids would need space to grow and love and learn and play, they wouldn’t be able to do that openly if the media accused Joe of having another fling every other week and the mystery man still being a mystery instead of being Nicky. Nicky was completely lost in himself.

Joe stopped his ranting for a moment, just a single moment. He had noticed that Nicky hadn’t been entirely listening to him at that point. With the man so thoroughly pressed against him it would not have been difficult to place feather light kisses along his neck and cheek. So, he did.

It wasn’t out of the ordinary for the two of them to fall into their own little bubble of life if the universe allowed for it. One minute they could be engaging with others and the next they’d be completely and utterly lost in one another. However, this only happened when they were around people they could trust. Nile was most assuredly one of them, she was not one to gossip to the media about them.

When Joe stopped his showering of kisses, Nicky retreated from the caverns of his mind and returned to the open air of reality. He reached out to set his mug on the table. Nile was off day dreaming of the street below, Nicky could see it in the glassy gaze of her eyes. Joe pulled him back to his body once the mug was firmly set down.

Tucked away in Joe’s arms, feeling like he was in his forever home, Nicky posed a question. A single, heavy, daunting, and daring question.

“I know how you hate their asking and questioning, _Amore mio,_ but what if we did something daring and bold.”

Joe, kind and loving Joe, craned his neck slightly so to look the moon of his life in the eye.

“You hate how they always ask about the latest woman you’re dating, what if we told them you were mine? That there was no woman, just you and me.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I might start posing questions for future chapters here in the end note in later updates. If there is one, I'll indicate it in the beginning! 
> 
> Cheers! And like always I love reading your comments even if I have no idea how to respond to them properly!  
> Loki


	4. Chapter 4

The sounds of the city ceased to exist. Silence had blanketed all and a falling pin could be heard. It was akin to the quiet in the dead of winter, after the blizzards had run through and there was not a soul or car to be heard throughout the entire borough. Similarly, the air was still and frozen between them.

It wasn’t that Joe and Nicky never talked about going public, they had on several occasions over the years, but every time it was brought up they decided against it. There was always some reason as not go through with it. Nicky was being sent somewhere else or was currently working at the children’s ward. Or Joe was filming something that was out in public where people could just walk up to him and interrogate him. Then there was the fear of backlash from executives wanting to keep up the idea that Joe was some womanizer that slept around instead of the loving and devoted partner he in fact was. They’d rather the image of someone who desired and was to be desired instead of a man who had eyes only for his lover and would go to the ends of the earth to prove it. They had been partially to blame when Joe and Nicky first decided against telling the public about their relationship.

Nicky felt the sharp intake of breath from Joe as it radiated out of him and into Nicky’s back.

If he hadn’t been so close, Nicky might not have heard him speak. With quiet trepidation in his voice, words trembling in ways they never had when the question had been raised in the past. “Are you sure?” Nicky was a man a few words, whereas Joe was not. The other man could speak poetry about the smallest of things while Nicky would comment in short responses. For Joe to give a comment more like Nicky would have, then there must have been some form of fear there.

“I am.”

Nicky hadn’t felt when Joe had stopped breathing for a moment, but he could feel as that breath was let out. “Maybe we should just give them a good story for once, instead of letting them scavenge for one.”

Joe laughed, Nicky felt it, and Nile returned inside to leave the couple to their conversation.

As a man of few words, Nicky was not one to say more than was necessary and would have rather expressed himself through his actions. But his man of words was thoroughly silenced for the time being. “Just think of what they’d say when they heard, would they say it was scandalous?” Nicky turned around so to face his future husband.

Joe quickly found his tongue again. “What part would be the scandal, my love? How their image of me has been wrong for years? Or how the trip to Malta they were dying to know about was a chance for me to propose to the love of my life?”

Nicky tried to say something. Joe kept going.

“Or maybe how I was seduced by an almost priest in Jerusalem so thoroughly that I am still with him after ten years?”

Before Joe could keep going, Nicky kissed him in an effort to quiet him.

\---

Nile washed out her mug before setting it on the kitchen rack. She knew that now was the time to make herself scarce so they could properly discuss their options for going public. Having heard it all before, she didn’t need to hear yet another speech about how much Joe loved Nicky and was the absolute love of his life. She’d heard it all a thousand times before. What Nile did not know was that the actual conversation was less of poetic love declarations and more so a scant few words between lovers somewhat scared of what the future would bring them. Nile was all too aware of the reputation that the media had painted for Joe and had heard second hand the pain it had caused for both of them in the early days.

Without looking back, Nile left for her place quietly. She had new scene ideas to write.

\---

The script in question had been in the works for some time now, two years thereabouts. Nile had first written down the idea for it the night she heard the Jerusalem story for the first time. While she herself was not one for forbidden romances and tales of someone being swept off their feet, there was a particular alure to the story of how Joe and Nicky became Joe&Nicky. She had always felt that those sorts of stories in Hollywood felt forced, whereas hearing Booker recount the story to her it had felt like anything but. When she had first put a pen to paper on it the goal had been to capture that same sort of alure and romanticism that had enticed her.

Part of her was tempted to call Booker, to tell him that they might actually be going through with it this time, since he had recounted to her so much of their story prior to her meeting Joe. It was midday on a Saturday, he shouldn’t have been at work. Nile sat down on her couch, today did not feel like a ‘sit in the office and be productive day,’ and pulled out her laptop. As it was turning on Nile looked for Booker in her contacts list. Right as she hit the call button the login screen to her laptop popped up. Turning on the speaker phone option, she logged in as a voice rang through the room.

_“This is Sébastien le Livre. Leave a message.”_

Damn Frenchman.

“Hey Book, its Nile,” she paused. How should one tell their friend about their other friends possibly going public with their relationship? Bluntly, maybe? “Joe and Nicky might actually be going public. Bye.” That should get his attention.

Nile hung up the phone and sat back, turned on the TV for some background noise, and began writing out yet another scene. Maybe this one wouldn’t end up in her laptop’s trash bin.

\---

He had gotten in early that morning, something he avidly tried to avoid if he had to be in the studio on a weekend. But this was enough to keep him up for days. A man had managed to get ahold of the Director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and had claimed that he had had a work by one of the old masters that he wanted to donate to the museum. Everyone who had heard of the call had been anxious but also skeptical of the man. The painting in question had been brought into the restoration and conservation studio early in the morning and for two hours it had just sat flat on one of tables. Booker was in awh of it, as was everyone else that had come to see it. He had already been given notes one what the director would like done with it. While reading over the notes for what felt like the eighth time, Booker heard his phone ring from across the room. He heard as the ringing stopped and his answering machine picked up. When he wasn’t in awh of the painting, he’d eventually go check his phone.

Time had somehow frozen and sped up in such a short amount of time that it was bewildering. It had been two hours since Booker’s phone had rung, meaning it had been two hours of staring at the painting. The missing _The Nativity with St Francis and St Lawrence (The Adoration)_ by Caravaggio was on one of his, Booker’s, restoration tables. He didn’t have time to answer his phone, much less think about it. The painting had been one he’d heard stories of its disappearance for years, in the short time he had tried forging pieces he had tried to replicate a small version of it, but nothing had ever prepared him for seeing the real thing. Evidently, someone had called in more of the restoration department as he heard footsteps coming in from behind him.

“Hey, Book,” Lykon’s voice rang out just as Booker heard his feet come to a frightening halt. “Is that?” The disbelief in the sight before him was apparent in his voice. Lykon was as amazed as Booker was by the painting.

“The missing Caravaggio?”

The noise Lykon made was almost inhuman. Booker was pretty sure he himself had made a few that sounded the same when he had first come in. Slowly, Lykon shuffled over to one of the desks to throw his stuff down before getting any closer to the priceless work.

“You’ve a missed call.” The disbelieve at the piece could still be heard in his voice.

“Who’s it from?”

“Nile.” There was a light pause that drifted in the air between the two men. “She says that Joe and Nicky might actually be going public this time.”

‘They’ve been saying that for years,’ Booker thought to himself. “Did she say why she’s so sure of it this time?”

“No.”

Booker left the painting’s side to collect up the different materials and solvents needed to remove the surface layer of grime from it. The cabinet that held the solvents was on the other side of the room, near to where Lykon was. By the time he reached the heavy wooden cabinet, that the museum had insisted be replaced with some sleek modern one time and time again, Lykon had already hit the redial on his phone.

_“Hello?”_ Nile’s bright clear voice rang out in the near empty room.

Booker had two brown glass bottles in hand when he spoke up, after Lykon had gestured the phone towards him almost expecting him to grab it. “Hey, Lykon’s here too. You called?”

_“Joe and Nicky might actually be going public this time.”_ Between the three of them, as well as Andy and Quynh, there was a large betting pool at stake.

“They’ve been saying that for years.” Booker thought nothing of it, he’d said the offhanded comment so many time that it might as well have been said without thinking.

_“Nicky brought it up this time.”_

Booker couldn’t help but snap back a, “No he didn’t.”

Nicky never brought up the idea of him and Joe going public, it was always Joe that did. Joe who wrote poetry about every little thing Nicky did and Joe who had sketched Nicky’s likeness enough to fill three galleries of the Louvre. Joe, who had called him at an ungodly hour from Jerusalem to panic about falling for the man across the hall, was always the one who brought up the idea of them going public. Never before had Booker met two people so deeply in love with one another as Joe and Nicky were, but to hear that it was Nicky that had brought up the idea of going public he almost couldn’t believe it.

Nile went on to tell him, and Lykon, on what he had heard earlier that morning. “ _You get it now? Nicky brought it up this time.”_

She’d hung up on them not long after, their silence was enough of an answer. The betting pool needed to be reevaluated.

“I’ll get the alcohol.”

“I’ll call Andromache and Quynh.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hours and hours of watching painting restoration videos on YouTube might actually come in handy for once. And, yes, the painting mentioned is a real piece that is in fact missing.
> 
> Cheers!


	5. Chapter 5

Steven Merrick was a cunt, though he did lack the personal warmth and depth to be called that so maybe another word would be a better descriptor. He was keniving, bastardly, and had no regard for others. The only thing he regarded was his own damned wallet and paycheck, if he had to step on others to get that check he would do it.

\---

It wasn’t until seven that night that both Booker and Lykon managed to peal themselves away from the Caravaggio. Sometime in the afternoon, Lykon had called Nile back and said that he and Booker would be over later on. Booker had been too engrossed in the painting to have paid attention to anything else. When they had finally left the MET, Lykon had suggested that they bring over food for everyone and had hit Booker when the other man had suggested bringing alcohol. Lykon, as well as the others, were all too aware of Booker’s struggles with alcoholism, as well as Andy’s but Quynh had found ways to dampen her wife’s need for a drink. Both him and Quynh had key’s to Booker’s place and would regularly raid the cabinets in an attempt to find any hidden bottles. Suffice to say, Lykon was not pleased with the other man’s suggestion.

They caught a cab over to a restaurant that they knew everyone liked, Tandoor Oven.

When they arrived, Booker and Lykon spent a good few minutes arguing over what to order before settling on just about everything the menu had to offer. In reality it wasn’t ‘a one of everything’ situation but it did feel like it had been. Between the four different appetizers, five individual entrees, one entrée to split, and a mountain of naans and rotis Booker had to finally tell Lykon that they had enough food for everyone. If he’d let him keep ordering, Booker was sure that he’d actually order the entire restaurant. It would be half an hour before everything would be ready for them to take back to Nile’s.

Lykon had been the one to pass out all of the food when they got to Nile’s, Booker had opted for getting napkins and forks and such since he hadn’t paid attention to which to-go box was which.

Quynh, who had already opened her food, spoke up first. “I’ll give them a week before they actually go public.” She said before taking a bite of her veinchina mamsam.

Andy quickly agreed with her wife. “What she said.” She didn’t even look up from her container of biryani.

That was how they had all placed their next series of bets on Joe and Nicky. Quynh and Andy typically bet on the same things, hence their agreement that it would be a week before Joe acknowledged his engagement publicly. It was also how they had both managed to collectively take six hundred dollars from Nile, Booker, and Lykon. They had all bet that it would be Joe that would finally suggest they go public and actually go through with it.

\---

After Nile had left that morning, and Joe and Nicky had actually settled on the idea of going public this time, the couple had just stayed in for a lazy day. Joe had had a hectic premiere the night before and Nicky was still dealing with the residual tiredness that had lingered from South Sudan. It was late, really late, by the time either of them had been even remotely interested in the idea of eating anything. But, they had only been munching off and on throughout the day and were well aware that they needed at least something decent in their systems. This decision was made around two thirty am, and lucky for them they were in New York City at the time. There was a good reason why it was called ‘the City that Never Sleeps’.

They were just about to leave, so to hail a taxi, when Joe noticed the chain that was hanging around Nicky’s neck. Nicky wasn’t one to wear much jewelry, if any, but he had taken a special exception to this. Joe stopped him at the door, fingers gently entwined with the chain.

“When I found this, I couldn’t help but think of you,” Joe’s voice was quiet. Nicky, by now, was well aware that it was his ‘I’m in love with you so much that it almost scares me’ voice. “I already had the other and I didn’t know if you’d like it or not, but I couldn’t help myself when I found it.” He moved his head just enough so to look Nicky in the eye. Before Joe, Nicky had only ever heard of what it was like to see someone drowning in love; but, he’d seen it now almost every day for ten years. Joe always looked at Nicky as though he were drowning in his love for him. There had been days, early on, that Nicky had felt he wasn’t good enough for Joe or that Joe was just settling for him. Back then he hadn’t known that Joe had felt similarly.

Nicky leaned in and kissed Joe. It was nothing too passionate or desperate, only a simple little peck on the lips before he balanced their foreheads together. “It’s from you so I love it.” The chain, or more so the object on the chain, was a second engagement gift. While Joe might have proposed to Nicky with the silver band that now sat on his finger, he had also given him a second ring as well. The silver band was simple but beautifully romantic all the same, it might not have looked like much from the outside but Joe had taken great care in making sure it was as romantic as possible. On the inner band there was a set of raised numbers that marked the day they met as well as the moon phase on the night they had first kissed. The second ring, the one that had not been made for Nicky and was older than both their ages combined, was a Victorian piece that had nearly brought Nicky to tears when Joe had told him the story behind it.

_…They had spent the day not far from their house in Malta. The furthest they had gone all day was to the beach that morning for a picnic breakfast where Joe had proposed. After that, Nicky had found himself nestled in soft white sheets and Joe for the rest of the day. Nicky was sprawled out on his back, thoroughly sated, with Joe next to him when he felt the bed beside him shift slightly. He turned his head to see that Joe was leaning over the side of the bed as though he were retrieving something from the bedside table._

_“Yusuf?”_

_Evidently. He had found whatever he was looking for as he moved so that he was now laying on his side facing Nicky. A small box was in his hand. Nicky couldn’t help but laugh a little._

_“You’ve already proposed once today, amore mio, and I think we can both agree that I definitely said yes.”_

_Instead of responding, Joe opened the box. “I know,” he presented the box to Nicky. “But, I couldn’t pass up an opportunity to shower you in gifts.” He smiled as Nicky took the box from him._

_Inside the box was an antique looking ring. The ring was set in gold with five colored stones set across the face of it. Nicky couldn’t tell what the stones were in the low light. Joe moved again, his head was now lying next to Nicky’s. “I found it in a little shop while filming. They said it was from 1851 and is one of the ‘DEAREST’ rings from the romantic period. The order of the stones spell out a word: **a** lexandrite, **d** iamond, **o** pal, **r** uby, and **e** merald. Even when I’m not with you, you can look at this and know that no matter what I always have and always will adore you…”_

There was one smile for each of them that they only allowed the other to see. It was Nicky, who had now decided that he was hungry and small snacks could no longer sustain him, that broke the shared look and smile between them. “And of course, I’ll wear it forever.” He opened the front door while Joe’s eyes were still lost on him.

The restaurant they had ended up at, a Cuban joint called Coppelia, was a few blocks away from their home and for the entire duration of their cab ride Joe had held Nicky’s left hand in his. Thankfully, it was either late enough or early enough that the cabbie didn’t try to engage them in too much conversation other than asking them where to go. Once they arrived, and their fare had been paid, the pair were quickly seated around the middle of the restaurant. Given the hour, it wasn’t surprising that not many other customers were in. With it being such an early hour, neither were bothered to give the menu a good look so to see if there were any new additions. At three am, they were very much creatures of habit. They ordered their usual late night meal: chicken and corn empanadas, lomo soltado, camerones Cienfuegos, yucca fries, and two Mexican co’colas. They were all too aware that there would be left overs, not that either of them gave a damn.

\---

**Mystery Man Solved?**

_Posted_ at 06:25:31 am  
By Steven Merrick  
 _  
[Photo: Joe and Nicky sat at a restaurant table with plates in front of them. Nicky facing Joe with Joe's side/back to the camera. Joe has one of Nicky's hands in both of his and has brought it up so that he could place a kiss on the back of it. Nicky's engagement ring is clearly visible.]  
_  
Actor Joe al-Kaysani, 33, was seen once more with the mystery man. The pair were spotted at the popular New York City restaurant Coppelia at around 3:20 am on Sunday. The mystery man, whose name is still unknown, was seen getting quite close to Mr. al-Kaysani while to pair ate. Both looked to be loving towards one another. However, it is noteworthy to mention that a wedding ring was seen on the hand of the mystery man. Could this be why Mr. al-Kaysani is so secretive about him? Is it just an affair and they don't want the mystery man's wife to find out?...  
  
...  
  
Update: (6 hours later) The Mystery Man has been named as one Nicolò di Genova.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not sorry.
> 
> Both restaurants named here are actual places in New York City. I've never been to either, in reality I've only spent a few hours in NYC when I was younger. Also, if you can't tell I wrote this wanting both Indian food and Cuban food simultaneously. 
> 
> Cheers!


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THERE'S A QUESTION IN THE END NOTE! PLEASE ANSWER!

**kaysanistan:** Who the fuck is this mans anyway??? He has no social medias what so ever.

**moonlight:** He’s probly some rich guy with a troofy wife that is just fooling around.

**50Centgotnothingonme** : If he’s willing to have affairs, I’m open for it (I say as I am painfully single)

**who_is_the_mystery_man:** He looks like a gold digger, Joe is too good for him.

**killingkings:** Joe must be desperate if he’d going for that

**whathappenedinmaltastayedinmalta:** Joe can do so much better than whoever Nicolò is.

**lo-amo-il-sole:** I agree with @whathappenedinmaltastayedinmalta, Joe could have done better

**69kasdominator420:** even if it isn’t an affair and they do love each other, they should still break up

**onceuponamillenium:** If its just an affair then they might split after this since its not secret anymore. You know what that means? HE’LL BE SINGLE AGAIN, EVERYBODY LINE UP

**KnifeSorcerer75:** I hate them together will they please just breakup so I don’t have to think about it

**hyqutpy:** But what if he isn’t already married and the ring is something else? They look pretty in love to me.

**109 Replies**

**SolvingtheMystery:** It’s an affair, plain and simple. I feel bad for his poor wife though, she didn’t do anything wrong.

46 unread messages from Nile  
15 unread messages from Booker  
10 unread messages from Andy  
10 unread messages from Quynh  
29 unread messages from Lykon  
5 unread messages from J. Copley  
  
7 missed calls from Nile  
2 missed calls from Andy  
3 missed called from Booker  
5 missed called from Quynh  
10 missed called from Lykon  
2 missed called from J. Copley  
  
Latest message:  
Andy: 11:07 am THE BITCH IS BACK

People: **Who is Nicolò di Genova?**

Us Weekly: **Nicolò di Genova: Everything We Know**

Cosmopolitan: **They thought they were being subtle, they were anything but**

OK!: **Joe al-Kaysani caught having an affair!**

Seventeen: **Is Joe al-Kaysani really taken?**

The Hollywood Reporter: **Internet on fire after Joe al-Kaysani was caught with mystery man in New York City**

Entertainment Weekly: **Caught in Malta, Tunisia, Genova, and now New York City: Who is Joe al-Kaysani’s mystery man, Nicolò di Genova?**

Twitter DMs to @alkaysani: 692 unread messages

Instagram DMs to @alkaysani: 1241 requests

12:30 pm

Sunday

It occurred more often than not that Joe would sleep with Nicky tucked away in his arms, but that didn’t mean it was an unwelcomed feeling to wake wrapped in his beloved’s. He’d gladly wake up that way every morning until the day after forever if the universe allowed for it. But the universe didn’t allow for things like that, just like it wasn’t allowing for Joe to have a peaceful morning. Luckily, Nicky slept through the blaring noise. Joe’s phone was ringing on full blast, the ringtone being Nicky’s go to karaoke song: _Un’emozione da Poco_ by Anna Oxa. Joe’s home screen on his phone had been a wine drunk Nicky in sequins and heels mid verse for the longest of times.

Joe grabbed his phone, that was still ringing, and slowly peeled himself away from Nicky. He walked out of their bedroom and quietly closed the door so to not wake him.

“Hello?” Joe had not yet seen the missed messages and calls notifications.

\---

Nicky woke up alone. Joe’s side of the bed was cold so he assumed that he had slept in late. He turned his head towards the other side of the room and noticed that the bedroom door was closed. They never closed their bedroom door when they were sleeping. Odd. Despite the lack of Joe and the closed door, Nicky didn’t see anything else that seemed off. Reluctantly, he got up out of bed and grabbed the nearest clothes to wear. The first thing he came across was a pair of grey sweatpants he knew were Joe’s and an old Henley of his as well, it was too early for him to go and look for his own clothes anyway. When he caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror, Nicky realized that the Henley was the very same one that had “mysteriously” ended up with everything else he had brought to South Sudan. It hadn’t been the first time an article or two of Joe’s clothing had ended up in with his things when he was being sent off to another country.

He padded out of the room, bare footed, into the main living area. Despite getting around seven hours of sleep, the wall clock in the hall had said it was 12:30 pm, Nicky still yawned anyway as if he were still tired. It was still going to take some time for him to readjust to a full night’s rest when his body was still so used to a short sleep schedule.

When he reached the kitchen, Nicky saw Joe seated at the island looking as though he had been stunned into silence. He was frozen in place, eyes locked on Joe.

Joe looked up and locked eyes with Nicky. _“Loro sanno.”_ It wasn’t often that two simple words could sound so chilling. _Loro sanno,_ they know.

Nicky didn’t even have to ask what that meant. He had known and loved Joe long enough that he could read everything in his eyes.

_They know._

_They know about us._

_They know about you._

_They know who you are._

_Someone took away our anonymity and now everyone knows._

Nicky tried his best to sound strong, but somethings don’t happen the way you plan for them to. “They were bound to find out.”

Joe was up and in front of him in an instant. His hands, warm and gentle, rested on either side of his face. “But, they were supposed to find out from us, _habibi._ ”

Nicky and Joe were one being that had just been split between two bodies. They were a single entity that could not have been contained in one so the universe split them and then had it be so that there was an eternal magnetism between them. Even when they hadn’t known each other, they had been drawn to one another. They were two halves of one soul that had decided to tell the outside world of them on their own terms and on their own time. But that choice had been ripped from them. Nicky could see in Joe’s eyes that whomever had found out about them had deeply hurt Joe. And while it hurt Nicky too that he had no say in the matter now, the individual had hurt his Joe and that was something he would not stand for.

Nicky was too busy planning out every way that he could get back at whoever had leaked them that he had almost missed Joe talking to him.

“…they’re all horrible. They don’t even know you and they’re acting like you’re the vilest thing on the planet. A gold digger, they’re calling you a gold digger, Nicky! You of all people! They’re insinuating that this is nothing more than an affair, that you’re some rich married man who just wants to sleep around behind your wife’s back. How could they?” It wasn’t often that Joe sounded so distraught over something, but that is to say he’d never had to read people calling Nicky awful things behind the safety of their keyboard. “They don’t know you.”

Joe was broken up over this, reasonably so, so Nicky decided to be the strength that they both needed right then. For years, Nicky had watched how the media liked to portray Joe, how they wanted to try to play up the image of a playboy when he was anything but. Nicky knew that they’d have a hard time coping with the fact that he was in a steady relationship, much less one with another man, since they had so desperately tried to maintain that false image. He had watched Joe try to build up this impenetrable wall around his heart, allowing only a few the key, and self so that the media could not harm him. Those first two years had been hard to watch though, Nicky being in school meant that he had to be away from the love of his life while the media tried to destroy him every other weekend. It had taken years for him to grow numb to it all, after days where it still affected him Nicky would end up with a speech from Joe about how much he loved him. It had been three years since the last time the media had done something that sent Joe into a state where the world felt like it was crumbling around him.

But this time it wasn’t just the media that were saying things. People who had no say in anything were too, and while Joe could deal with the media as he had for years it was what people were saying about Nicky that hurt the most. Nicky didn’t even have to look him in the eye to know that this felt worse than those rumors in their earlier years.

“I love you, you know this.” He hooked one of his fingers under Joe’s chin so he could look the other man in the eye. “I’m not good with words, not like you at least, but I know that I love you. You are the best thing that has ever happened to me, _amore mio_ , and whoever is saying all of this is trying to get a rouse out of you. Right now, its’ working. Now, please, look at me. I love you and comments from people who don’t know us mean nothing. You are the sun in the sky of my universe and I love you beyond measure and reason, Yusuf.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> At some point in the near future, y'all'll be getting the Jerusalem story at some point soon-ish. With what is planned out right now it is going to be long, no way around that, but that does lead me to one question for you. Would you rather it be posted all at once or broken up over a few chapters? When its finished I'll probably ask again once I know where I'd break it if it were in chapters.
> 
> Cheers!  
> Loki


	7. Chapter 7

Andromache, Andy, Scythia only had sisters; mind you they were much younger and would always be annoying to her no matter what but they would always be her sisters. While she hadn’t really spoken with any of her blood family since leaving home that didn’t mean she didn’t keep tabs on them. She had found a brother in Lykon, and later Joe, Nicky, and Booker, and would always be as protective of them as she was to any of her blood family. They were her family, and she’d be damned if anything happened to them. Little did Steven Merrick know that he was now a dead man walking…. metaphorically at least.

Quynh had been the one that found the article about Joe and Nicky that the weaselly little Englishman had written. Every so often she would have days where she felt the need to wake up early and go down to the range in the early hours of the morning. While she didn’t have any early morning trainees at the moment, that hadn’t stopped her from waking up early anyway. The former Olympian in her would let her sleep in late. She was just about to leave when she had felt the sudden urge to google Joe’s name. With her track record so far, it wasn’t a good feeling to have. She had met Joe, who had still been Yusuf at the time, not long after she had started dating Andy. At the time, Andy and Joe had still been roommates so Quynh had gotten used to his presence rather quickly. Not long after his first big break in acting, Quynh had developed a habit, that might have actually been taken from Andy, that involved searching up Joe’s name every so often to make sure no one was messing with her “little brother.” While Quynh had a younger brother, she had quickly followed Andy in claiming that Joe was her family as well. Over the years she had only begun to search him up when she had a bad feeling about something. Evidently, it was one of those mornings.

**Mystery Man Solved?**  
By Steven Merrick

The name alone had made her blood boil. Steven Merrick was a disgusting, pitiful excuse of a human being. He was the absolute scum and filth of the earth, he cared for no one other than himself and his bottom line. Why he was still allowed in any form of journalism, Quynh had no idea. That man had nearly been on the receiving end of a restraining order from Joe twice, and twice Quynh had urged him to go through with it but he hadn’t.

Just seeing his name brought about illegal ideas to Quynh’s brain. Maybe today wasn’t a day for the range. She closed the door, set down her bow case, and headed back towards her and her wife’s bedroom. Last night had been late, Andy might have still been asleep. Even if she was though, she wouldn’t be for long. Quynh opened the bedroom door and to no surprise found Andy still passed out in bed. She stepped in the room and sat on the bed before lounging herself across Andy. The other woman grumbled. Quynh moved her head slightly, so that she could easily whisper in her ear.

“Andromache.”

The other woman groaned again, “What?” The word was muffled by the pillows her face was buried in.

“I have a job for you.” Quynh knew all too well that Andy did not have a case to work on at the moment.

“What?” This time Andy’s voice was a little less muffled but no less sleep ridden.

“You remember Steven Merrick?”

Andy turned her head so that she could look at Quynh. She said nothing but Quynh knew she remembered, that she’d never forget him for the harm that he had done to Joe in the past.

“I need you to see what you can find on him.”

“That’s illegal without due cause.”

“I know.”

The private investigator smiled at her wife in the early morning light.

\---

In the week it had been since the Caravaggio had been brought into the conservation studio, both Lykon and Booker had threatened anywhere between minimal bodily harm to complete evisceration followed by defenestration on the originally” mystery conservationist” roughly ten thousand times. It had gotten to the point, for everyone working on any part of the conservation, that Lykon had moved his belongings into Booker’s office temporarily and his own hand become the team’s ‘what the hell was this “conservationist” doing and can I just scream at their stupidity’ room. No one had actually screamed in the room though, that would have drawn far too much attention, but the walls were covered in handwritten threats on any available scraps of paper. The director of the MET had come down one morning, or of curiosity to see how the conservation was going and hadn’t been briefed about the transformation Lykon’s office had undergone. Suffice to say, he found the new job of the room rather funny but made sure the team was well aware that the notes had to be disposed of when the process was done. He also reminded everyone that he would like to have the painting’s conservation finished before the Gala so it could be displayed alongside the costumes and other pieces. Three weeks, that gave Booker’s team three weeks to finish everything with the delicate painting. There had been an influx of threats from the team in Lykon’s office that night.

Booker wasn’t one to worry, Lykon was. But when Lykon worried everyone else began to worry with him. But with the rest of the team off doing other little things for the painting, building the new stretcher, finding out what happened to it between it going missing and its resurfacing, and finding out what exactly had been used in its previous “conservation”, Booker got an up close and personal view of Lykon’s worrying.

“A week!” None of them had heard from Joe or Nicky in the week since the Merrick article had come out. Not a single paparazzi caught a photo of the pair as the media and the hellscape known as the internet continued to speculate about Nicky. Even when Nile had stopped by their place, three separate times, neither one had answered. Lykon had gone by both the day before and in the morning to see them, like they had with Nile, neither one answered the door.

“I’m aware.”

“Sébastien, they haven’t answered any of us for a week! Do you understand that? A week!”

He understood perfectly well. But, Booker, as well as anyone who had spent five minutes with Lykon, was well aware that the other man was protective over anyone he considered family. In the past, Booker had called Lykon a ‘Mama Bear’ to the new interns and he, Lykon, tried to deny it; right now wasn’t helping his case. “Can you stop for five minutes and help me move this painting? If you don’t, I will go down to the ABC store and buy the most expensive bottle I can find.”

“You wouldn’t.”

Booker just looked up at him through his eyebrows as he removed the cinderblocks from the pressing board. They had done a treatment to remove any sort of warp in the painting earlier in the week but wanted to make sure that the canvas was as flat as possible before any further work had been done on it. The delicate painting had been in the process of being pressed flat for the last four days.

“You would,” Booker could hear the grimace in Lykon’s voice. He didn’t even need to look up to know the look of displeasure on him. Booker was setting one block down on the ground when he saw Lykon reach for one too.

Lykon didn’t say a word about Joe and Nicky’s week long silence as they moved the canvas off the pressing table and back into the main studio. The pair carefully set the painting down on the main table of the restoration studio to begin work. Despite what they had already done, there were still little bits of paint that had not readhered themselves to the canvas during the first treatment they had performed on it. Booker was straightening out the painting, as well as the remains of the tacking edge, on the table while Lykon went off to the other side of the room to collect what was needed for the next part of the restoration process. There was not a doubt in Booker’s mind that he’d come back and immediately bring up the lack of word from Joe and Nicky again.

At first Booker didn’t pay attention to what Lykon was saying. The man had already been talking when he got back to the table. Instead Booker chose to lay out the washi kozo paper on the painting while Lykon prepared the glue, water based fish glue to be precise, they’d be using to bind the remaining paint fragments to the canvas. At this point it sounded more like he was talking to the glue that to Booker.

“Did he say anything to you after the article broke?” Lykon asked Booker as he reached for one of the brushes they’d be using.

Joe, bless him, was not the best at technology. Of their little group, the tech people were Nile and Booker. More so Nile than Booker at times since the woman seemed to always know what the latest thing was and how it worked. Anyway, Joe had yet to turn off the acknowledgement in his phone that told whoever had texted him that the text had been read. “I’ve been on read for a week now,” the article had been broken last Sunday. Booker began the long and laborious process of painting on the glue to the paper that would be used as a temporary binder. “I’ve known Joe long enough to know that he’ll talk when he wants to.”

Lykon grabbed another brush and started painting on the glue to the opposite edge of the canvas and paper. This was likely going to be the only thing they did for the rest of the day. Paint on the glue to the paper and painted side, leave it to dry for a few hours, flip canvas, paint a different adhesive to the other side, let that dry, take to the hot table and use the heat and adhesives to bind all remaining paint pieces to the canvas with pressure before removing the washi kozo paper from the painting.

Lykon had stopped worrying, at least verbally, around the time of the second adhesive’s application. By then they were both too concerned with the state of the painting to bother with saying anything, instead all of their attention was focused on the job at hand. Many hours later, when they were slowly removing the paper from the canvas with the utmost care, was when Lykon brought up the silent lovers again. But this time it wasn’t their silence that he was talking about.

“If you think about it, it all kind of makes sense, you know?” Lykon had grabbed one of the stools from another table and had it sitting next to him with a small bin to place all the paper he had removed in.

Booker stopped for a second. He looked up. “How does a rat faced, fake journalist trying to wreck their life make sense in any way?” Booker had once threatened to expose them to the public after their little found family had gone on a trip together and he had been subjected to two weeks of ‘even after six years we’re still in the honeymoon phase despite not being married’ Joe and Nicky. The had said they wouldn’t speak to him for a hundred days if he did. He hadn’t in the end.

“What’s the theme of the Gala this year?”

“Rebirth and Enlightenment?”

“I said theme, not the name.”

“The Renaissance.”

Lykon just looked up at Booker with the ‘I know you can do better than that so do better’ glare.

“Inspirations from the Italian Renaissance during the 16th and 17th centuries.”

“This painting, absolutely beautiful painting, was painted in Italy in 1600 and was on display for those who knew where to look for it. That is until someone stole it and it was missing for a time. When it turns up its in a beat up condition from when others thought they knew best how to handle it. They didn’t though. But, after it leaves here it will be stronger and in better condition than before and then the whole world gets to see it. Now _who_ does that sound like?”

Booker didn’t need to vocalize the answer. He knows who that sounds like and Lykon knows that he knows.

\---

Nile, for her part, had stopped going by Joe and Nicky’s and had stopped texting and calling them to see if they were alright. While she knew them both well, and on more than one occasion had been comforted by Nicky when things had gotten difficult, she knew that they wouldn’t talk if they didn’t want to.

With all this upheaval in their family, in the form of one Steven Merrick, she knew that there would be some changes to Joe and Nicky, and by extension the rest of them, for a while. While sat on her couch, laptop in hand, Nile wasn’t sure if she wanted to take any inspiration from this last week and put that in her script. There were so many stories of love and devotion between Joe and Nicky that she’d heard and couldn’t help but be inspired by. Instances where their love for one another was as undeniable as the fact that the Earth revolved around the sun. She knew that they would have wanted to tell the public about their relationship themselves instead of how it had been broken. Maybe that was where her inspiration was instead. Nile thought for a second.

‘ _Give them the stage they had wanted,’_ Nile thought. The characters, as loving and devoted as the real life couple that inspired them, were both kind and ancient souls that wouldn’t have cared what the world thought so long as they could be themselves. _‘Maybe this Merrick situation can have some good in it.’_

Nile opened up her laptop and opened up a new file as well as a few of the random files she had living on her desktop that house various different scenes. She wanted to try and tie them together so to give her inspired characters a sense of openness and self that the media had taken from Joe and Nicky. But, before she could even begin to work, a little idea began to snag at the back of her head. There had been some details from her first draft that had been nagging her in the back of her head, just little things that she had wanted to expand upon but didn’t know how. But, if the last week had taught her anything, it seemed that now she had the right idea on what to do with those little first draft ideas.

With a light smile, Nile minimized the new windows she had opened and search for a single file that had been abandoned since last April. A quick search later, she found it easily. Nile opened it without hesitation.

_KingofMyHeart.docx_


	8. Chapter 8

After a week of nothing from both Joe and Nicky, the pair decided to break their silence. It was a group text, sent from Nicky, that both him and Joe were fine now and that they didn’t need to keep stopping by their place to check on them. Nile, ever the caring soul that wished to keep her found family happy and together, that suggested they all have dinner that Tuesday night. She was inquisitive, no doubt already knowing that everyone was available then before even suggesting, and seemingly gave the couple another day to collect their wits. While Nicky when back and forth with her on details, in the end they decided to come to Joe and Nicky’s for a low key get together, Joe was fielding questions from his manager and PR team that he’d been avoiding for days now. When that rat had found Nicky’s name, the emails from PR and Co had been near instantaneous. 110 unread emails. Joe hadn’t opened a single one.

Most of the emails came from PR; so far only three seemed to be from his manager, Copley. And all three seemingly asked the same question. _How do you want to go moving forward?_ So far, Joe had three blank, well almost blank, emails open: 2 to PR and 1 to Copley. He looked up at Nicky, who was now talking on the phone as opposed to texting, and smiled. Joe exited out of the two PR directed emails. He sent back a single sentence to Copley. If there was anything that Joe knew he hated, it was one sentence answers. But, for right now, James Copley would have to deal with that and Joe would handle the repercussions later.

_I have an idea, but you’ll have to trust me on this._

_-Joe_

“Nicolò.” As if on instinct, Nicky looked up to lock eyes with Joe. “Nicolò al-Kaysani.” He’d tried the name out a few times in Malta, Joe melted every time he heard it.

The man in question leaned back against the kitchen counter, “Yes, Yusuf al-Kaysani?”

Joe hit send on the email to Copley before closing his laptop and heading to Nicky, phone in hand. Nicky said his goodbyes and hung up the phone, just from what he said, Joe could tell he had been talking with Nile.

As if they were magnetized to one another, Joe met Nicky halfway in the void that had separated them. He brought one hand to rest on his waist while the other brought Nicky’s left hand closer to him. Without breaking eye contact, Joe set a kiss on the back of Nicky’s hand. “Nicolò al-Kaysani.” The words were hushed against his hand. Nicky leaned forward the last distance between and balanced his forehead against Joe’s, he wasn’t going to kiss him just yet. “Do you know how incredible that sounds? Nicolò di Genova sounds like every piece of music ever written but, Nicolò al-Kaysani is like the symphony of the universe to my ears: it’s beautiful and endless.”

Nicky had said time and time again that he was not good with words, not like Joe was, he was more of a man of action instead. He leaned forward and kissed Joe, his left hand moving so that he could hold Joe closer. The added benefit was that Joe felt, on the nape of his neck, the cold metal of Nicky’s engagement ring. The simple gesture reaffirmed the undeniable fact that he was Joe’s, and Joe was Nicky’s.

When they drew apart from each other, when their bodies had demanded they breathe, it was Nicky that spoke up first. “Mister Yusuf and Nicolò al-Kaysani,” the words were a quiet prayer for only themselves and the greater universe to hear. “Should we, Mister al-Kaysani?”

The night before they had broached the subject of how to confirm any rumors of them, and how to denounce any of the false accusations made towards Nicky. They had already agreed to put Joe’s Instagram to use for the announcement, the public one not the one that only friends had access to. Though, Joe had joked about making that one public and just taking a post from it and uploading it on to his other one as a story. But, alas, that one was just reserved for a select few. 

“I think we should, ya amar.”

\---

**Mystery Man Unmasked**

_By Shaylah McKreed for HuffPost_

Following a week of ardent speculation and no word, actor Joe al-Kaysani finally spoke up! Last Sunday, an article was released, written by Steven Merrick, after al-Kaysani had been seen and photographed with a yet to be named man. He had been spotted before with, who appeared to be, the same man in various different locations around the world: Malta, Tunisia, and Italy to name a few. It wasn’t until a few hours later that that the mystery man’s name was revealed. Before Sunday, the man had largely been referred to as the “Mystery Man” in tabloids and across the internet. But, he has now been named as one Nicolò di Genova. Alas, if there was any hope from fans of al-Kaysani that he would make a swift and immediate comment on the matter their dreams of such were quickly squandered. Hours turned into days and the silence from al-Kaysani, or Mister di Genova, dragged on.

However, just after 11:30 this morning the silence was finally broken. In a heartfelt Instagram caption and, finally, a close up photo of di Genova, Joe al-Kaysani broke his silence in the most adoring way possible…

\---

_[Photo: Nicky not long after waking up that morning, evident that he is not a morning person by choice. Tucked in airy white bedsheets and with his head still on a fluffy pillow, a dreamy and loving smile on his face as he looks up at Joe who is behind the camera.]_

**@j.al-kaysani** : This is Nicky, the piece of my soul I never knew I was missing. To all of you who will bring up any possible “relationships” the media thought I had, none of them ever caught my eye when this is who I was coming home to. He is an angel amongst men and I am beyond honored that I will get to call him my husband. To anyone still questioning the validity of us. He’s not my boyfriend. This man is more to me than any of you can dream. He’s the moon when I’m lost in darkness and warmth when I shiver in cold. And his kiss still thrills me, even after all these years. His heart overflows with a kindness of which this world is not worthy of. I love this man beyond measure and reason. He’s not my boyfriend; he’s all and he’s more.

751,341 likes 61,829 comments

**@mrs-al-kaysani** : I guess my handle is useless now

**@joescurls_official** : Every one of you that called Nicky a gold digger, sleep with one eye open

**@thisisalovestory** : Like I knew he was a hopeless romantic before, but damn. New goal in life is to find someone who will talk about me that way

**@kaysani_owns_me** : *incoherent screaming*

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this semester is trying to thoroughly beat my ass. At this point, any hope that I had of having at least semi regular updates for this has been thrown out the window.
> 
> Cheers!  
> Loki


	9. Chapter 9

Joe took it upon himself to post several other photos of Nicky throughout the day. Maybe it wasn’t his best idea, or Nicky’s given that he agreed to it, using a photo of Nicky just after he had woken up as their announcement to the world. But, Joe couldn’t help it, he adored any photo of Nicky just after he had woken up and was well aware that he couldn’t have used any of the morning Nicky photos from Malta. Those photos were for Joe and Joe only… maybe for Nicky if he wanted to see them too.

Copley and Co had been fine with the Instagram caption…not so much the photo.

So, in turn he shared several other shots of Nicky to make up for everything he hadn’t shared over the last ten years. Nicky curled up on the couch of their first apartment with a book in hand and under a blanket, one Quynh had taken when Nicky and Joe were trying to cook something that neither had ever attempted and it going horribly wrong, one of Nicky at his family home in Genova, and another of Nicky and Joe’s sisters last spring. His favorite by far was the last one uploaded. It had been the day he and Nicky had met, technically they had met the night before but no one needed to know that. He had been taking Nicky through Jerusalem when he had learned that Nicky had never had a falafel. Joe had immediately made a bee line for, what he considered to be, the best falafel stand in the Old City. The photo had been taken just as Nicky took his first bite and his face read “What have I been missing out on my entire life?” When Nicky’s family started talking to him again, they had all taken to the photo and had it framed back in Genova. Over the years, Nicky had tried to hide the photo when he was back home but had eventually given up after his mother had scolded him about it. He’d then come to accept that it was one of, seemingly, everyone’s favorite photos of him.

It didn’t take long for the photos to start circling the internet and, to their luck, people had been rather respectful of them. Some hadn’t been, but there was no use in giving them any thought. The vast majority melted at the photos and waxed on in comments about how they wished their partners, real, imaginary, or otherwise, would talk about them as Joe did about Nicky.

\---

 **@j.al-kaysani:** _It might have been a cold and bitter winter, but the warmth of your smile brightened every day._   
  
**@j.al-kaysani:** _I might have lost my eyebrows and any sense of dignity others might have perceived me to possess but the way you looked at me afterwards was enough to shift my world. No matter how ridiculous we had been, you still put up with my attempts to try something else. It might have taken a bit for me to catch up to you in the kitchen, if this incident was anything to go off of, and still you put up with my every attempt. My darling, I love you more than anyone can understand.  
_  
**@j.al-kaysani:** _When I met you and fell in love you we were meeting at life's crossroads; and while it might have taken some time for your family to come around to the idea of us, I can say with absolute certainty that I have never seen anyone as beautiful as you in the city you called home. Every day I thank the higher powers for allowing me to even meet you, much less take in this sight of you.  
_  
**@j.al-kaysani:** _Last summer they were bugging us about when we'd finally be getting married. I still have to pinch myself that you said yes._  
  
**@j.al-kaysani:** _The moment I knew_.

\---

Joe had gotten in, late in the day, on the dinner plans for the next night. He had to be somewhat in on them, given that everyone would be converging on his home with his Nicky. He had been in the kitchen, surveying what they already had before heading out to get anything they needed, when Nicky had answered the door. Whilst on a few occasions, paparazzi had waited out on the street to pester Joe beyond belief they had never actively knocked on their door. Nicky was sure that whoever was at the door had to be one of the paparazzi that were so desperate for a story they would do anything to get it. He ignored the first light knock on the door, and the second that came a few minutes later. It wasn’t until a voice said from behind the door, “I not with any paparazzi. I’m here on behalf of Nostrum*.”

If the last week had told Nicky anything, it was that he shouldn’t have gone to the door. (But, he was prepared to fight someone off if needed.) He’d heard of Nostrum before, Joe had worn suits by them to a few premieres in the past. Back when Joe was just starting to gain a following, and not long after Nicky had come into the picture, they had been an up and coming design house. Unlike other designers, they chose to keep their designers anonymous and only name the fashion house. The first big picture that Joe had been in, one that had been rumored to be nominated at the Oscars but hadn’t in the end, he had been dressed by Nostrum. Nicky knew that Joe had a certain fondness for them, and he did too because no matter what Joe always looked fantastic in anything they created, but knew all too well that that fondness had never really been expressed outside of one of their ateliers. Cautiously, he opened the door.

“Hello.” It was a young woman on the other side of the door, no camera. Two envelopes were in her hand. “You must be Mister di Genova?”

“Yes,” Nicky was still mostly behind the door as though it provided some level of defense. This woman looked much too small to be able to do any sort of damage towards him, but he knew not to underestimate anyone.

“Then these are for you.” She lifted to hand him the two envelopes. “And for Mister al-Kaysani. The Head of House would be rather appreciative if you both accepted the invite this year.”

Without saying a word, Nicky accepted the two envelopes and the young woman was off on her way. He closed the door but remained in place for the time being. Both envelopes were of an unusual size, neither the smaller typical invite dimensions nor the size of a twice folded sheet of printer paper. Nicky flipped them over in his hand. As if the back would have been any different, the front of the envelope was the same bright green that the back had been. However, each of their names, in beautiful calligraphy, were framed in gold on the front face. He joined Joe in the kitchen.

It is the lilt of his love’s laugh that brings Nicky out of the little world that the pair of envelopes had driven him into. Nile must have been on the phone still. When he caught Nicky’s eye, the conversation quickly came to a close.

“Tomorrow then.” If you hadn’t met Joe before, one might have been fooled into thinking he was asking that he’d heard the date right and was just confirming. This was not the case, however. Tomorrow then was his goodbye now.

He hung up the phone, setting it face down on the counter. No words were exchanged between the two, not verbally at least. Nicky knew this man better than he knew himself, at least that’s what he thought, and he could tell what he was thinking just from the slightly raised eyebrows. Maybe someone else wouldn’t have noticed, but Nicky always did. _‘What’s that?’_ Joe silently asked.

An equally silent response came from Nicky, Joe could see it in his eyes. _‘An invitation.’_ He stepped forward and took one of the envelopes from Nicky. Neither one noticed that the one now sat in Joe’s hand said ‘Mister Nicolò di Genova’. Nicky could see a gold glint reflect off the envelope lip when Joe opened it. He removed a flat card. There was obviously something written on the other side, Nicky saw Joe’s eyes cross the page as though he were takin in each word, but he himself had caught a glimpse at the other side. On the back of the card was, what appeared to be, a floral and leaf motif drawling that was met with wonderful tones of blue, green, and orange. Joe set the card down on the counter, the worded side was backed in a warm brown. He turned the envelope over.

In an instate, Joe’s eyes met Nicky’s. He took a step closer so that he was within a breath’s distance of Nicky. It was no longer a conscious action when Nicky leaned into Joe’s hand, it ceased to be conscious many years ago. Had it still been conscious when they left Jerusalem or had it already ceased to be? “They seem to be as enamored by the moon of my life as I am.”

“Did they send you another MET invitation?” Prior to Joe, his ever loving Yusuf, Nicky had never thought you could properly get lost in someone’s eyes. But like so many other things, Joe had proven him wrong time and time again.

Joe had said time and time again, publicly and privately, that he wouldn’t go to the MET without the right plus one. For years the media had speculated what that meant, only close friends and family knew that that meant Nicky. “It’s an invitation for you, ya amar.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Inspiration for the invite came from:  
> [Invitation color inspiration](https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/460208?searchField=All&sortBy=Relevance&when=A.D.+1400-1600&where=Italy&ft=italian+renaissance&offset=60&rpp=80&pos=121)  
> [Invitation design](https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/356336?searchField=All&sortBy=Relevance&when=A.D.+1400-1600&where=Italy&ft=italian+renaissance&offset=300&rpp=80&pos=312)
> 
> *Your Latin lesson for the day, Nostrum means ours 
> 
> Cheers!


	10. Chapter 10

While it might have technically been a dinner, the whole thing might as well have been just an elaborate breakfast for Nicky. He wasn’t supposed to be on call at the moment but one of the other nurses had had sudden family issues crop up and desperately needed someone to cover her overnight shift on Tuesday. After he agreed to take it, Lillian was sweet and she’d have done the same for him, Joe had been insistent that Nicky just sleep the day away. He hadn’t wanted to so Joe had attempted to take matters into his own hands. It didn’t go as he had planned. “Remember how we didn’t leave our hotel room in Malta for three days?” Joe had asked but Nicky was quick to remind him that they had been more focused of sex after cold nights and months of separation.

“What about Jerusalem then?” 

“Which time?”

“Any time.”

Never the less, Joe’s attempts failed each time. Whenever he tried to remind Nicky of an instance where he had willingly stayed in bed for days on end he failed to remember that Joe was the reason behind that, especially early on in their relationship. Joe’s last attempt had almost melted Nicky’s heart on spot at the memory, the week they had met in Jerusalem. In Nicky’s moment of distraction, Joe took his opportunity to crowd his lover up against the door they had been standing close to at the time.

Joe busied himself by placing little kisses, no more than pecks, along Nicky’s jaw as he spoke. “You need to sleep,” he said in between those little pecks.

Nicky just leaned his head back onto the door as Joe moved his focus from his jaw to bis neck. “Because you are making me think sleep is what I want right now,” he hadn’t even realized that he’d slipped back into Italian at that point, he was too hung up on Joe.

“I’ll find a way.” In the past ten years they had both become fluent in one another’s native languages so it wasn’t unheard of to hear half a conversation in Italian and the other half in Arabic in the al-Kaysani/di Genova household. Nor was it unheard of, between themselves, for them to fall into their duo lingual conversations in their most intimate moments.

By now, stubborn and determined to make sure that Nicky slept before their dinner with friends and his shift at the hospital, Joe tried all in his power to just get him back to their bedroom so he’d at least sleep at some point in the near future. Nicky was but all too compliant at this point. He’d finally managed to get Joe’s lips away from his neck and onto his own not long before bliss started to overtake him and all that seemed to be holding him up was Joe’s weight pressed against him. With his arms already swung over Joe’s shoulders and a little encouragement from the man himself, Nicky found himself locking his legs around Joe’s waist as he carried him back to their room. It was a dance they had first learned after Jerusalem ten years ago and had only perfected it since then.

Joe was right in the end. And to his dismay, he wasn’t there asleep next to the love of his life. Instead, he was to take on the task of dinner for them and their friends by himself without letting Nicky step into the kitchen once he woke up.

Nicky woke, some hours later, to the warm smell of spices and the captivating sounds of Joe singing in the kitchen. He had to be in the kitchen, why else would he not be with Nicky? Darling, angelic Joe had obviously taken it upon himself to cook a few dishes for their friends while Nicky knew that they others would bring whatever was to their fancy. Nicky, still blinking away sleep, dragged himself upright so that his back was to the headboard. He leaned his head back, eyes closed and senses coming alive again, and took in the world around him. For ten years he had thought himself lucky to have a love like Joe. There had been many times in the early days where he had thought Joe was too good for him. Ever the lover and king of his heart, Joe had made it his personal mission to Nicky to prove that he was worth everything he gave to him; that Nicky was worth everything and more. 

Nicky pulled the sheets up so to bury his face in them. Like always, they smelled of Joe. 

He stayed there for a moment before forcing himself to take a shower. While the other nurses teased him sometimes about him and Joe's intimate activities on the days Nicky's hair seemed even the slightest bit messy, he felt that there was no need to add more fuel to the flame that was their teasing. Their friends used to tease them too. Back when they could still be considered two separate individuals, before they came to the universe’s decision that Joe&Nicky were a single individual split into two bodies, and their friends had teased them endlessly about them acting as human magnets. They hadn’t been wrong.

When he got out of the shower and pulls on some well-worn lounging clothes, Nicky stands in the doorway of his and Joe’s bedroom and once more leaned his head against the doorframe. He lost himself to his own thoughts and melted into his surroundings. The smell of koucha emanated from the kitchen and there was no doubt in Nicky’s mind that Joe either was making or has already made a pesto risotto to go with it. It was the same combination that Joe’s mother had made for dinner the night he met the al-Kaysani family for the first time. He used to think it was a strange combination at first but had quickly come to associating it with home and family when his own refused him either.

There was an inherent warmness to the atmosphere, no doubt brought on by the smell of comforting foods and the soft sounds of his fiancé’s voice. It was an atmosphere Nicky missed dearly when he had to be away. For what felt like the thousandth time, Nicky debated the possibilities again of leaving field work to stay in New York with Joe. He headed to Joe and the kitchen.

“ _Ti amo, cuore mio.,_ ” Nicky said as he wrapped his arms around Joe’s waist and pressed his forehead into his love’s shoulder.

Joe leaned back slightly into him. He lulled his head towards Nicky’s. “What was this brought on by?”

“ _Niente.”_

They fell into a comforting silence. Joe had told himself that he wasn’t going to even let Nicky take one step into the kitchen and here he was fully embracing that he was clinging to him like a koala bear. When the food was finished and people had started arriving, Nicky unwound his arms from Joe. Quietly, Joe found himself deflating slightly at the loss of Nicky’s touch. He watched as Nicky, with his only lightly damp hair and gentle smile, hugged and greeted friends at the door as they moved to set their own dishes on the table. Nile showed up first, with her take on a shrimp dejonghe in hand. From the way she was holding the box she had brought it in, Joe could tell even from a distance that it had just come from the oven. Once she had tried to bring a Chicago deep-dish style pizza to one of their dinner nights and it had been a horror story to everyone involved. It was made up for however when they had visited Chicago and she had taken them all to her favorite deep-dish restaurant. Soon after she was followed by the other four. With the table covered in foods from everyone’s home, they had decided that it a comfort meal sort of night for them all. 

Joe had still been in the kitchen when Lykon snuck in. “Nicky’s out tonight?”

He didn’t have to ask what his friend was talking about. “7 pm to 7 am.”

“Then I hope he’ll like this when he gets back.” Lykon set two jars on the table: one was Pindjur and the other Ajvar, as the labels on top read. “I saw my sister yesterday and she had brought some back from Mama.” Both were pepper based spreads that, if given the chance, Nicky would have willingly eaten right out the jar with a spoon.

“Thank you.” The pair joined the rest at the table. Joe saw that Nile had one of the MET invites in her hand, because of course if anyone found them it would be Nile.

“What’s this?” She demanded with a smile that said. ‘I already know what this is but how dare you not tell me.’

Joe&Nicky had already become a single person long before meeting Nile. They each offered up their own sarcastic responses to the question.

“Nothing useful.” “Paper.”

Andy smiled. Quynh picked up the other invite, they had both been sitting on the coffee table. “I guess an invitation to the MET Gala this year for Nicolò di Genova is useless then, a piece of meaningless paper.”

“Nothing involving my Nicolò is useless.”

“You just said it was useless though.”

“The other one is, that one isn’t.”

Nicky butted in. “So, I, a nobody, am going alone then?”

“You’re not a nobody!” Joe took instant offence to Nicky’s comment. “You are the moon of my life, the northern star to guide me home…”

Quynh coxed them all away from the pair of lovers. Even if she and Andy had their moments of romance, they’d never be anywhere near as sappy as Joe&Nicky. Everyone else quietly left them to themselves for a moment and converged in the kitchen. It was Lykon that asked what they were all thinking. “Is this making it into your script, Ni?”

Nile hadn’t told any of them about the script she had been writing on and off, but the first time she had been asked about it she wasn’t surprised that they all knew. All except Joe&Nicky.

They might have teased her about it endlessly, but she knew that they all found it endearing that she took such joy in their love story that she felt she had to write something to do them justice. “It might.”

Dinner went off without a hitch. Before anyone knew it, the plates and dishes lay empty and the hour drew closer and closer to 6. Everyone, both friends and co-workers, knew that Nicky liked to be there early for his overnight shifts. He tried to make a fuss about having to clear the table first but, surprisingly, Andy was insistent that Joe take him over and they would clean up. It wasn’t often that he wished to be alone; him and Joe together was as easy as breathing but there were some moments where you had to remind yourself to do so. That night had become one of those moments.

“You don’t have to,” Nicky knew it was a weak argument even before he said it. Andy just smiled at him instead of responding. “Alright,” he accepted defeat.

“I’ll take y-,” Joe looked Nicky in the eye.

“I’ll get a cab over, it’s nothing on you.”

“But-.”

“Guests, Yusuf, we have guests over. Hosts don’t leave their guests to clean up everything and, besides, they all know you’re picky with where things go in the kitchen,” they all knew that that was rich coming from Nicky, the man who hated if any of his kitchen knives were in the wrong place. “You can come get me in the morning,” Nicky said with a sly smile knowing all too well that it took the equivalent to six business days for Joe to wake up before 11 am.

It took a fair bit of convincing, but Joe finally relented to his Nicky’s wish.

Nicky stepped away to change out of his house clothes and into a pair of scrubs instead. He grabbed his blue corduroy coat to throw on over everything before he headed out. The coat had been a gift from Joe the winter before he graduated from nursing school. They’d gone up to Vancouver for New Years that year and, despite Nicky’s better judgment, he hadn’t brought a warm enough coat with him. “And to a warm and cozy new year,” he had said while pulling it around Nicky’s shoulders after buying it.

He left without much fanfare: hugs for Nile, Andy, and Quynh; a smile for Lykon and Booker as neither were that much of huggers; and a kiss for Joe. House keys and phone in hand, Nicky set out to hail a cab instead of driving there himself. He’d lived in the city for ten years and still refused to drive its chaotic streets. When he finally had his cab, the cabbie was quiet and only asked for the location he was headed to without much else to say. A comfortable quiet settled over the car.

Nicky lost himself in thought. He thought back to the days before he had applied for Doctors Without Borders, the times after residency he had just been an everyday children’s nurse that worked in a hospital without spiriting halfway across the globe to another country for work. While he loved being able to help where needed, it was tiring after a while. For not the first time since leaving South Sudan, Nicky thought that maybe it was time to leave field work. Yes, he knew it would be difficult for him to do- stepping away from something had always been difficult for him, except on one occasion- but if he thought he needed to do it he would. Besides, they had an office in New York City and if Nicky wanted to go back he could apply to work there instead. That might force him to give up working at the hospital though. Nicky sighed, it either wasn’t that loud or the cabbie didn’t care. There wasn’t a reaction from the driver. Instead of making a decision right then, Nicky let the idea drift back into his mind. He’d make a decision later on.

‘Joe will be filming a show in the city,’ a little voice in his head said. ‘You’d get to stay here with him until that’s done at least.’

Decisions.

Decisions.

Decisions.

“We’re here,” the cabbie finally spoke up. Nicky paid for his fair and got out of the cab. He stood outside, like he had a thousand times before, but tonight felt different to say the least. The very air around him felt strange. Despite the feeling, he went in.

Nicky, still called Nicolò back then, had had his residency there. Fresh out of nursing school with a beautiful sense of ‘if I can help do some good in the world I will’ that the rest of the staff thought he’d lose by the end. He hadn’t. And, after two years of nursing school, 12 months of hospital residency, 2 years of on staff nursing, and 3 years split stateside and overseas with Doctors Without Borders, he still hadn’t lost his want to help others. And they had all loved him for it. Everyone loved Nicky.

“Buongiorno,” was how he always greeted everyone, even if it wasn’t morning. It had been a joke at first, when one of the doctors had found out he was Italian and both had just been though a brutally long twelve hour shift. Neither one had been able to tell left from right and much less morning from night, it might have technically been morning when the doctor in question had said buongiorno but from the way he yawned and the tiredness that had overtaken his body it hadn’t felt like it.

“No,” one of the other nurses on call responded to Nicky. ‘No’ had been Nicky’s response to the doctor testing out his Italian all that time ago. While Nicky was usually a morning person and bless the heart of any poor soul that had to cross paths with him late at night, but he hadn’t been on that particular day.

Celeste had been sat at the main desk when he had walked in. He assumed that there was at least one other in the room behind her, but the door was closed to which she became the recipient of Nicky’s late night greeting. She was sweet and had only been out of her residency for a year or so, the kids they tended to work with loved her.

He went to put his coat away before clocking in, if the clock was right, 8 minutes early. “Joshua’s back,” she told him as Nicky hit enter. Like he had earlier, Nicky sighed. Joshua was a gentle kid that had a bit of a chaotic streak, Nicky could relate to that, but every so often it would land him in the hospital under 24 hour watch. Prior to meeting the boy for the first time when he was almost a year old, Nicky had only ever heard about cases of hemophilia in textbooks. The reality of it came to ahead for Nicky then.

He decided that he would go see the boy when he was making his nightly rounds. When Nicky was on shift, it tended to work out that he’d be watching over and working with the younger kids that were there. He hoped tonight wouldn’t be one of the more heartbreaking nights on call. Lillian was a general RN who tended to be down on the ground floor working with patients that would be in only for 24 hour surveillance. Her and Nicky had both been doing their residency together when they met, she had also been one of the first people he had told when he signed up for Doctors Without Borders and the additional training he needed for their pediatric intensive unit. Slowly, he’d been moved to work more in the PICU than on the ground floor with the general RNs but everyone still knew that he was willing to take up a general shift for those that needed it.

He started his rounds a little before 8, having to finish up some things that had been left for Lillian to do hadn’t taken as long as he thought they might have. The first three kids, he hated thinking of them as ‘patients’, that Nicky checked on had already fallen asleep. They had been two girls and a boy, all under the age of 5. None of them had been too severe in their cases which put Nicky’s heart at ease. It was already past nine when Nicky got to visit Joshua.

“I fell, Mr. Nicky,” the small boy that had given him his nickname said. Years previously, Nicky had had a name tag that read ‘Nicolò’ and all the kids he had worked with seemed to be confused by the ‘ò’ in his name. A young Joshua had been determined to call him Nicky and the name sort of stuck. The boy was now seven and the rest of the world seemed to know Nicolò as Nicky now.

“I can see that.” He couldn’t really, the charts on Joshua that Nicky had read prior to entering his room said that the majority of bruising had been to his leg and side.

“I didn’t mean to. Mama said she had to get a book from the bookshelf and I just wanted to help her.”

“Did you climb the bookshelf?”

“I didn’t know the shelf would break.”

“You have to learn to be more careful, or else you’ll keep ending up here.”

“But you and the other nurses are nice when I’m here.”

Nicky explained to the boy that him falling, or just being his usual chaotic self, wasn’t a good thing when it landed him in the hospital. Yes the nurses were nice to him but they all hated seeing the kind little boy be admitted to the hospital yet again for a condition that was out of his hands for the time being. He explained that for now, the others had managed to stop the bleeding that had landed him in the hospital but that he’d need to be careful when he got home.

“If you want to, you can ask your parents to come visit us instead of having to see us as a patient.”

After that, Joshua asked if Nicky could get one of the books that his mom had brought for him over night. Despite this, Nicky was dead sure that the boy would be asleep after a few pages. He’d come back in to move it when he went to check on the boy later. Nicky left to check on other patients after giving Joshua the book and like the seven year old they were all seemingly in varying degrees of almost asleep. It was most definitely a calm night. So, he thought at least.

The nurses on the night shift all took their breaks at different times so to not have too many out at any one time. They had turned their break times into a well-oiled machine as well, no one over lapped and there was always a five or ten minute gap in between one getting off a break and another taking one. Usually, it would be that breaks were taken in order of how people clocked in but Nicky, being Nicky, made sure that people took their breaks before he did. At fifteen past three in the morning, one of the other nurses that had gotten in after Nicky finally convinced him to take a ten. Most of the others had just sat back in the break room for their breaks, given that it was a chilly night, but it was starting to feel a little too warm inside for Nicky. He went to grab his corduroy coat before going to sit out front. The benches out front were cool to the touch and the full moon was bright overhead, a perfect place to relax for a minute. The feeling that something was wrong still lingered over the air, Nicky hadn’t thought of it in several hours. He tried not to think too much of it, instead he re situated himself so that his back was to the arm rest so he could stretch his legs out on the rest of the seat. A little voice in the back of his head wandered back to his earlier dilemma about leaving Doctors Without Borders and just staying in New York instead. It had been three years but had started to feel like much longer every time he saw a child that had been brought to the pediatric unit he worked with. His heart had broken for every one of them. There was but only so much heart break the human body could cope with.

There was a small tree not too far from him. It was surrounded by plants that would begin to flower in the coming months. The planter’s bed they were in was even ringed with grey stones so to keep everything in. But another addition to it had caught Nicky’s attention. Behind the tree was a rather square looking object, the size of a banker’s box.

‘Curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back,’ the little voice in Nicky’s head reminded him.

He got up and moved towards it, hoping it was just some piece of litter that had been swept around and had ended up there by mistake. But he’d heard stories from other hospitals before. The closer he got to the box, the more the strange air came back. This time it was thick with unease, Nicky could feel the anxiety building up in his body. He’d been outside for five minutes at most. There seemed to be a blanket partially on top of the box, he couldn’t see inside just yet. He stood over the box and moved the blanket just slightly.

Nicky reached for the walkie talkie that he kept at his side. “SOMEONE CALL THE NICU,” he nearly yelled into it. In seconds he heard someone run outside, they were close to him.

In the box was a little baby, barely a few hours old. Nicky checked for a pulse and found that the child was still covered in the vernix caseosa. The pulse was weak but it was there. All the sudden, Nicky felt like he was back in South Sudan.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finals are almost past!!! So I can now at least attempt to keep to a semi regular update schedule.
> 
> Not everything is mentioned as to what is being brought but here are all the recipes that I had in mind for everyone: 
> 
> For Joe&Nicky  
> [Koucha](https://food52.com/recipes/75570-tunisian-lamb-stew-koucha)  
> [Pesto Risotto](https://johnfodera.com/recipe-risotto-alla-genovese/)  
> For Andy and Quynh  
> [Kazakh Baursak](https://www.internationalcuisine.com/kazakh-baursak/)  
> [Bánh chuối](https://bunbobae.com/vietnamese-coconut-banana-bread-pudding-banh-chuoi-nuong/)  
> For Lykon  
> [Polneti Piperki](http://www.macedoniancuisine.com/2016/01/stuffed-peppers-piperki-polneti.html)  
> [Ajvar](https://www.tasteatlas.com/ajvar/recipe)  
> [Pindjur](https://www.196flavors.com/macedonia-pindjur/)  
> For Booker  
> [Socca](https://www.daringgourmet.com/socca-recipe/)  
> For Nile  
> [Shrimp de Jonghe ](https://www.food.com/recipe/shrimp-de-jonghe-201802)  
> Cheers!  
> Loki
> 
> If you want Im on Tumblr here [fetchmeabook ](https://fetchmeabook.tumblr.com)  
> 


	11. Chapter 11

Joe had been awake since 5 am, an hour only the crazy and Nicky would be awake.

By 6:30, Joe had yet to receive a message from Nicky.

As 7 came and went and the hour grew to 8 there was still nothing from Nicolò.

The 9th hour of the day passed and the silence from his other half grew.

By 10:30 concern had set in. Nicky would have at least given him some warning if he was actually going to stay longer than he was scheduled for. The worry that had settled in his head had taken over numerous times in the last hour and a half. Joe had sent numerous texts to Nicky, all asking when he thought he might be done or even if everything was okay. All he received from his other half was radio silence.

\---

**Al-Kaysani Unfaithful?**

_Posted_ at 11:40:31 am  
By Steven Merrick

_[Photo 1: Joe in car at a stop light visibly distressed.]_

_[Photo 2: Joe seen running from the parking deck into the hospital.]_

This morning at approximately 10:55 am, actor Joe al-Kaysani was seen running into Our Lady Mary Children’s Hospital in East Harlem visibly distraught. As of right now it is unknown as to why Mr. al-Kaysani was seen going into Our Lady Mary’s. For those who remember, there is still speculation around the internet stating that actress Ashlé Conrad’s son was fathered by al-Kaysani, and for those that do not remember the pair were seen frequently together before and during her pregnancy. No relationship between the pair was ever confirmed. However, anonymous sources are confirming that the boy was admitted last night to Our Lady Mary’s Children’s Hospital for unknown circumstances. Are they finally willing to come forward with the truth?

Last week, Joe al-Kaysani announced on Instagram that he and a man by the name of Nicolò di Genova were engaged but it was not stated how long the pair had been together. Al-Kaysani had been seen with Mr. di Genova on numerous occasions, the first of which seemed to be three years previously. After the revelations of this morning and the speculations surrounding Miss Conrad, can it be said that Mr. al-Kaysani is an unfaithful partner? Did he cheat on Mr. di Genova with Miss Conrad? Is he finally taking responsibility for his actions?

This is a breaking story, more information is to come.

\---

**kaysanistan:** I’ve heard of people claiming they are in a straight relationship when they really aren’t but never someone saying they’re in a gay relationship to cover up a secret love child. Honestly though, with the shit he’s done in the past, I’m not surprised.

**onceuponamillenium:** I loved him and Ashlé together. They were so cute! He needs to dump this Nicolò guy and get back together with her, they were obviously made for each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

**SolvingtheMystery:** Listen... I’m not saying that him and this Nicolò guy aren’t a couple, I’m just saying it’s a little too convenient. Personally, I still think him and that guy are just fooling around and cheating on their respective partners. But in the end Joe needs to man up and acknowledge, and have a part in, his son’s life. Cut it out with all this cheating business, playtime’s over.

\---

On Twitter:

**@ashleconrad_real:** @mistermerrick for the thousandth time, you need to stop spreading false rumors just to push your headlines. And for the last time, Joe and I were never a couple and he is not my son’s father. End of story.

\---

The Hollywood Reporter: **Rumors Fly as Joe al-Kaysani is Seen Running Into Our Lady Mary Children’s Hospital in New York City**

Seventeen: **Are ‘It’ Couple Ashlé Conrad and Joe al-Kaysani Getting Back Together?**

Entertainment Weekly: **Ashlé Conrad Says Joe al-Kaysani is Not The Father of Her Son**

\---

Twitter DMs to @alkaysani: DISABLED

Instagram DMs to @alkaysani: DISABLED

\---

When Andy had started looking into the background of Steven Merrick, she hadn’t been expecting to find so many inconsistencies in his story. Even statements from the man himself didn’t line up with previously made ones on his past. He’d claimed everything from being a little nobody with nothing to his name that had managed to climb the ranks of society all on his own to being an inheritor of vast amounts of wealth that had been left to him by a relative. She thought that there had to be something that tied each reason and lie together, but she’d be damned if she knew what it was. Nothing made any sense when it came to Steven Merrick, nothing at all.

Quynh, who liked to watch procedural shows in her free time precisely to annoy her wife, had begun taking papers and files from Andy when she wasn’t looking. For as inquisitive as the other woman was, she could truly be blind beyond compare to things right Infront of her. Thus, Quynh turned their living room wall into a suspect board like she had seen dozens and dozens of times on TV. Again, when Andy finally noticed it she would be annoyed by it simply for its association with crime shows. Once everything was up on her “suspect wall”, Quynh began looking for similarities in the lies just as Andy was. Except unlike Andy, who was trying to piece together the larger picture at the moment, one small thing stuck out to Quynh. On three separate occasions, Steven Merrick publicly claimed that he had inherited money, old money, from deceased family members. For two of those occasions, he had refused to state how much money had been inherited, but on one occasion he claimed to have been gifted somewhere in the ballpark of 25 million dollars.

While Quynh wouldn’t be one to admit she knew how everything worked in economics and tax law, she did know that that 25 million would be taxed to some degree. Maybe not as much as it should be, but there should be at least some form of taxes on that sum. If that was a lie it should have been easy to find out the truth.

“Andromache?”

\---

**(11:19 am) Nile:** You know I don’t listen to gossip magazines, but twitter is blowing up right now about you running into Lady Mary’s

**(11:20 am) Nile:** Is everything alright?

_Message unread_

**(11:40 am) Nile:** If you and Nicky need any help with anything, we’re all here

\---

Joe knew that cameras seemed to always be watching him. He’d dealt with it all since he was 18 and had just learned to accept that this was a part of his life. There were moments that he regreted in his early days, the ones before Nicky, that the media seemed to define him by. He had been young and had dated around as any other teenager or early-twenty-something might have, except all his dates had been caught on camera. The media tried to brand him as some sort of serial dater with a new partner every week, they only picked up on the girls though. In the five years between becoming a relatively recognizable face at 18 and meeting Nicky at 23, Joe had had all of three partners in reality but the gossip sites claimed that the number was actually around ten. What did they know anyway?

That being said, if he cared about how he’d be perceived to gossip sites and on the internet he probably wouldn’t have run into a children’s hospital in broad daylight. But, while Nicky wasn’t that fond of cellphones that didn’t mean he didn’t answer them and Joe hadn’t heard from Nicky since he left. Knowing Nicky, he’d have at least called him once he was off his shift since he hadn’t driven there himself and he’d have taken a cabbie home if he wasn’t planning on leaving with Joe. But there had been no call nor a yellow car out front their home at any hour of the day.

Thus, Joe ran into the hospital. Cameras be damned.

\---

He could tell that Celeste, who had said she wasn’t leaving until Nicky also left, wasn’t supposed to tell him that Nicky was up in the NICU. It had been, almost, an offhanded comment on her part. After that she hadn’t said anything further. Luckily, she didn’t inquire why he was now headed up there afterwards. He had no idea as to why Nicky would have been up there. Yes, him and Nicky had talked about possibly having a family after they were married. But Nicky wasn’t the kind of person that would go and stare at the babies in the nursery or watch them in the NICU. It just wasn’t like him. Yes, he loved children but he thought that just watching stranger’s kids like that was unsettling.

A few times Joe had to check with maps to make sure he was headed in the right direction. He had only assumed the NICU was upstairs instead of on the main floor, and luckily that assumption had been correct, but other than that he was flying blind on its exact location. It took what felt like at least 20 minutes, and a random text that he ignored, before Joe finally found the place he was looking for. There was a heavy looking door that closed off the NICU from the rest of the hospital, in it was a small, vertical window. From there he had a clear view of Nicky.

Joe stood by and watched his love for a moment, unsure why he was even there, before Nicky turned towards the door and saw him on the other side. He walked closer and Joe’s heart began to break for him. Nicky was not one to cry. He compartmentalized everything and when everything began to feel like it was too much for him, Nicky would overcome it by expressing himself through tender acts towards Joe, their families, and friends.

Even from a distance, Joe could see the tear tracks running down Nicky’s face.

Joe did not move to open the door. Instead, he let Nicky come to him, to allow him however much contact he did or didn’t need in that moment. He stood there, stone still, and let Nicky wrap his arms around him once he was past the door. Joe held him close and felt as Nicky buried his face in his neck.

“Nicolò?”

In broken and muffled Italian, Joe could make out Nicky saying, “I can’t leave her, Yusuf, everyone left her. I can’t leave her. She’s tiny and helpless. She’s absolutely perfect but she’s so tiny.” Joe felt the new wave of tears coming from Nicky before he heard any sign of them.

“Who?”

Joe assumed that the other nurses in the NICU already knew he was there, none of them put up a fuss when they saw him returning. Upon entering the ward, Joe wasn’t expecting to be dragged towards a baby but he wasn’t all that surprised given the circumstances and emotional reaction of his fiancé. Nicky brought him over to what Joe assumed was an incubator, he himself had no experience with them so he could only make assumptions, and the site inside was heart wrenching. Joe knew instantly why Nicky was at the point of breaking There, amidst all the wires and tubes, was a tiny little baby. Joe had some experience with babies, having three younger sisters definitely counted as experience, but this one looked nothing like they had. He wasn’t as sure with the oldest of the three, he himself being three years old when she was born, but according to his mother all her children had been born late. This one looked too small to be late. Joe looked up at Nicky who was watching the child with such love that it could have grounded him, had he not already been emotionally distraught himself. He looked down at the baby, seemingly fragile and helpless, and noticed the tag around one ankle. All he could make out were the words ‘Girl’ and ‘Doe’. As if the universe decided to make the situation all the more painful. Even without knowing the full story, Joe could understand why Nicky wouldn’t want to leave the baby.

Neither one heard one of the on shift nurses walk in. “Nicky, you should go home at some point.” His voice was kind and gentle. Joe had no idea who he was.

“I can’t leave her,” Nicky mumbled, eyes not leaving the baby.

“You can come back, I know that you are aware of when visiting hours are. You’ve been hovering over her since three this morning, go home and get some rest. If you don’t come back later today then do so tomorrow. She’s not going anywhere anytime soon and she’ll be in good hands here.”

Nicky tried to make his rebuttal but the words never materialized. The nurse walked closer to them. “She’s safe here, nothing is going to happen to her. Take care of yourself for a while and we’ll take care of her.” The nurse proceeded to do the round of check on her vitals that he had meant to do. After he left, Nicky tried to explain some of what had been found out about the little girl to him. The staff estimated that she was born at around thirty weeks, going by her size and development. And, when the police had been in, to take statements about her and to interview Nicky who had found her, they had been equally broken hearted over her situation. They had taken a DNA sample from the vernix caseosa in the hopes that some relative of hers could be found, that being if she had someone that was in the database or in any other database that publicly held DNA. All throughout, Nicky had referred to the girl as ‘Topolina’ instead of Baby Girl Doe. “Remember the tiny mouse we found in Jerusalem, the one that just curled up without making a sound? She hasn’t even made a sound yet either,” he had reasoned.

It was another hour and a half before they finally left the hospital. Joe tried to reason with himself that it was because he wanted Nicky to willingly leave the baby’s side, but he knew that was a lie. He hadn’t wanted to leave her there all alone after Nicky had told him the circumstances of her being found. Luckily for them no cameras were permitted anywhere near the entrance to the hospital so they were in the all clear to get back to the car without being harassed.

\---

Every so offend, Quynh would joke that Andy was actually a master at witchcraft with how quickly she could get certain files. Theoretically, it should have taken the other woman days or weeks to get together the tax records on one Steven Merrick. However, unknown to them, they were unable to get them at the moment due to an ongoing investigation that he had been evading taxes. After that other pieces of the puzzle that was Steven Merrick began falling into place.

“If Nicky were here, I’d place a bet against him that Merrick is involved in all sorts of crazy shit.” Andy didn’t even have to be looking at her wife to know that she was smiling while speaking.

“You just want to win a bet you know he would lose,” Andy retorted.

Quynh looked up at their “suspect board” with curiosity. “Do you think he’s got any mafia ties?”

Andy stopped her work instantly. “Nicky would never.”

“I was talking about Merrick, not Nicky.” Andy hadn’t turned around so she wasn’t able to see the glare that Quynh was giving her.

“Good. He probably does, among other things.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Can you tell at all that this is the 'time to push the story along' format?
> 
> Cheers!  
> Loki
> 
> If you want Im on Tumblr here [fetchmeabook ](https://fetchmeabook.tumblr.com)  
> 


	12. Chapter 12

While the pair had returned to their home by two that afternoon, barely a word had been said between them. Yet both knew what had been on the other’s mind, it had been on their own too. And as day grew into night they managed to lose track of time. Lillian, who was still away but had found another to cover her shorter shift the next day, had sent the article to Nicky that night and it was only then that the larger picture of their new situation began to settle over him. For the entire day, all he had thought about was the little baby that was alone in the hospital without any family to watch over her. Yes, he knew each and every one of the nursing staff in the NICU was an angel in their own right but they weren't her family and that broke him inside. Nicky had always been strong in uncertain situations, but the moment a child was involved his emotions took over and rational thought took a backseat. At times, South Sudan had been a living hell with the sheer number of children they had had to treat.

Joe, with baseball cap and sunglasses in hand, had returned home around 7 pm. They had agreed that they’d at least talk over dinner, even if it was akin to small-talk. Before that Joe had run out to a small grocer to get a few ingredients for lablabi that they had been out of. He could have gone straight into the kitchen from the front door but instead he walked out into the living room to see if Nicky was up and about at all. Instead of finding his fiancé reading, or even watching something just for the noise, Joe found him curled up and sound asleep on the couch. Quietly, Joe put away the ingredients he had bought.

“Babe?” Joe sat down on the floor next to the couch and brushed a stray lock of hair out of Nicky’s face. Nicky didn’t respond. To that end, Joe sat there for a moment in an attempt to see just how sound asleep Nicky was and if he was able to move him. With the light of the slow setting sun streaming in through their front windows, Joe couldn’t help but be taken back to Jerusalem all those years ago on that first morning of forever. Back then he hadn’t known what it was like to love someone with your whole being, but he had the slightest little inkling that he’d learn with Nicky. As always, Nicky was as breathtaking to watch now as he had been then.

Nicky didn't budge as Joe moved him from the couch back to their bed. And as much as he'd like to join him, Joe thought that there was a call he had to make first. He sat by Nicky on the bed for a few minutes first, making sure that he would stay asleep and not wake at the slightest movement. When he was sure that he wasn't walking up, Joe slowly got up. He moved the blankets up around Nicky and drew the curtains for the dimming light not to wake him. Joe quietly closed the door as he left. His phone was still with the groceries in the kitchen.

Joe, when Nicky wasn’t around to berate him for doing so, hopped up on the granite counter to sit. He grabbed a cup to fill with water, in the end the cup would remain filled and untouched till morning. With phone in hand, Joe searched through his contact list for Nicky’s younger sister. Joe wasn’t quite sure where Roberta was at the moment but figured she might be awake. Last time he or Nicky had spoken with her had been five days prior and she had been in Venice then, Joe assumed that maybe she was still in Italy but he was never quite sure. Like Nicky, Roberta had been thrown out of the di Genova family for a time and had spent some time in New York with her brother and Joe. When their parents came around to the idea of Nicky and Joe being together and not splitting up anytime in the near future, Nicky had done everything in his power for them to accept her too. On a memorable occasion, not long after Roberta had got her own place in New York, the three of them had gone to visit the di Genova sibling’s family back in Italy and while their older siblings were accepting, and parents were learning to accept, there had been one uncle who kept calling Roberta ‘Giorgio’s son’ or by her dead name. While she had done her best to ignore it, after a week Nicky had snapped and slapped the man across the face during dinner. They hadn’t been planning on leaving Italy for another few days but had ended up leaving in the middle of the night after the incident.

As the phone rang Joe hoped that she’d answer. After the third ring she did. “Sì Yusuf?”

Never before had he been so grateful that Roberta practically slept all day to only be awake all night. “Where are you?” He asked her in her native Italian.

“Still in Venice, like I have been for two weeks now.”

Joe paused for a moment.

“Why?”

“Do you remember when my niece, Noor, was born and you found that beautiful lace cap for her?” Noor hadn’t had much had as a newborn and being born in the winter the whole family had been on the hunt to find tiny hats and beanies to cover her little head.

“Yes.”

“Would you be able to find another?”

“Noor would be too big for them now, and none of my nieces and nephews or yours are small enough for them.”

Now came the moment of truth. “Don’t be so sure of that.” Part of Joe regretted phrasing it that way but he had no other idea on how to tell the woman.

“Yusuf, what are you not telling me?”

Roberta was just as kindhearted and open as Nicky was, Joe couldn’t help but breakdown and tell her everything about the little girl at the hospital. When he was done she was silent for a moment. “Have you decided on a name yet?” The question startled him in a way.

“What?”

“I know my brother, and I know you, Yusuf. You wouldn’t be thinking this way if you didn’t want to bring her home. No matter if you realize it or not, you already love her like she was your own.”

“How can you be so sure that we’re going to bring her home?”

“Remember when I was last in New York and I met your friend Booker? We were talking and at some point, I don’t remember how it happened, he told me that he had been the one you called in Jerusalem in a panic after having met Nicky. You told him you were falling in love with a man you had just met. Booker had been your contact, and I was Nicky’s. Until he met you, Nicolò was dead set on becoming a priest but in one teary phone call I knew that wasn’t for him.”

Teary phone call? Thinking back to Jerusalem, Joe couldn’t think of a time, other than Nicky’s first night in the city, where they had been separated long enough for him to start crying over something. “What phone call, Roberta?” In their ten years together, Nicky had never once mentioned crying to his sister over the phone in Jerusalem. He also didn’t know, at least to Joe’s knowledge, that Joe had called Booker in a panic that first day. And what did this have to do with the baby?

“The airport when he was supposed to come back. He said that he was alone because he had to leave the love of his life to appease our parents. I knew then that it was our parents and not him that set him on that path. The way he talked about you made me think that you two are made for one another. You two came together as a rash decision that neither of you thought out, and you’ve been making decisions like that in the years since. When love is involved with you two, you throw caution to the wind and go with what your hearts-desire. Is it so hard to think after hearing how your relationship started, and how quickly you two fell in love with one another, that you’d want to start a family together the first chance life throws the opportunity to do so at your feet?”

As much as Joe loved Nicky’s siblings, as he did his own, he hated when they were right. He didn’t even need to talk to Nicky about the idea of bringing the girl home and the three of them being a family. The mere thought of it warmed his heart and the thought that they’d get to see that little girl grow and learn and love brought an endless joy to him. It hit him like a million bricks, but this seemed to be the first chance the universe had given Nicky and him the chance at a family of their own.

“Does he still like the name Emilia?” Once, years ago, Nicky had said that he’d like to have a daughter named Emilia. He’d said it in front of Joe’s family by mistake which had led to the wide spread speculation that they were in the process of starting their own family. That had been four years ago.

Quiet and almost sheepishly, Joe replied, “Yes.”

“Emilia al-Kaysani it is then.” Of course she’d know of the name change Nicky was insisting on for himself.

\---

The news was broken on a Wednesday morning, a week after Baby Girl Doe had been found. A woman’s body had been found hidden away in Central Park in a state of decay. Both Joe and Nicky had been visiting the little girl when they overheard an update on her case. On a whim, her DNA sample had been run through the system to find any relative matches. After the woman had been found, whose name had yet to be determined, they discovered a positive genetic match between the two. That night they had set up the much needed orientation prior to completing any of the pre-requisite adoption paperwork.

\---

Joe didn’t tell Nicky about his phone call with Roberta. However, two weeks later when a package addressed in Roberta’s careful script arrived at their door he had to make his confession. “That first night, I called her to see if she could find something for her.”

They had, by then, established that if they could adopt the little girl then they would. But with her still in the hospital under 24 hour monitoring, it would be a long time before they’d be able to bring her home. They tried to visit her everyday but at times it was difficult for them to make it over, those days had turned out to be the worst for the couple. The day the box came in had been one of those days. With a week before the MET gala, they had been stuck getting suit fittings done. And while the designers had been busy with his Nicolò, Yusuf had asked one of the apprentices if it was possible to make a small stuffed toy from any of the left over velvets from their suits as something little Emilia could hold on to when she was stronger.

Just days prior Nicky had ben insistent to the hospital that the little girl had to have a name. Joe had been with him when they’d changed the name tag from ‘Baby Girl Doe’ to ‘Emilia’ and he couldn’t have been happier that Roberta had remembered Nicky’s fondness for the name.

When they had opened the box there were two gift wrapped parcels inside. One was labeled for both of them and the other for only Joe. While Nicky seemed curious to the fact that there was one specifically for Joe, he didn’t question it. Just as Roberta had gifted to baby Noor, inside was a floral lace cap with her name stitched into the hem. The name ‘Emilia’ was hidden in amongst the colorful lace garden scene in delicate silver thread. It looked, almost, fragile in Nicky’s hands and, for what seemed like the thousandth time for both of them, once more they were hit with the possibility that they could make this a reality and she officially be their daughter one day. By now they both already loved her fiercely.

Later on, Joe would open the second parcel and be just as amazed at the things Roberta would find for her loved ones.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In all honesty, this one isn't holding my attention as much as it had in the past. The plan is still to finish it so you guys can get the Jerusalem story for this though. 
> 
> (There is another AU idea in the works though...)
> 
> Cheers!  
> Loki
> 
> If you want Im on Tumblr here [fetchmeabook ](https://fetchmeabook.tumblr.com)  
> 


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'd just like to make it known, before you continue, that I only have a Wikipedia level knowledge base of how seminary works.

As always, when one of their friends found out something suddenly all of them knew. Within ten minutes of Lykon getting an inkling that they would try to adopt the baby, that they all now knew of, both Joe and Nicky were getting individual and group message texts from Nile on whether or not it was true. Nile wasn’t someone you could lie to, she just had one of those personalities that made you want to tell her everything. It had worked to her advantage in that moment.

\---

She hadn’t been expecting to finish her script in such a short amount of time. With how long ‘King of My Heart’ had been sitting on her hard drive in a thousand little pieces, Nile Freeman figured she’d be lucky to have it finished by the time Joe and Nicky’s honeymoon was over. But with all the recent developments in their life, the ones they’d told willingly and the ones she’d found out about by mistake, there seemed to be an invisible pen that was writing everything down for her finally. When it was completed, and fully edited in a mindless daze, she wasn’t sure what to do about it. Part of her wanted to keep it to herself, it was a story that was based on the endless love and affection that two of her closest friends had for each other. But, on the other, she wanted to show the rest of the world just how powerful a story like Joe and Nicky’s was. She had never been one to read romance novels or watch a romcom when there were other things on, but things seemed a little different when you got to watch such a beautiful story unfold right before your eyes.

With a glass of red wine in hand, Nile waited for Quynh to finish reading over her script. Her and Andy had known Joe and Nicky the longest of their little group, Lykon had also known them for years before she came into the picture but he was currently unavailable, which had led her to be the first person to read it in its entirety- other than Nile of course. She was just over halfway through it when they both heard a menacing cackle ring through the apartment.

Without missing a beat, Nile looked over at Quynh. “As if your wife couldn’t be any more frightening.” There wasn’t a tonal change in Nile’s voice but it was a sound that had sent shivers down her spine.

Quynh, wide eyed and slowly setting the script to the side, told Nile, “A moment.” Her wine glass joined the script. She got up out of her chair and gingerly walked up the stairs to the loft portion of the apartment, the place Andy had recently moved Quynh’s makeshift ‘murder board’ to. “My heart?” She asked from the top step. Quynh could see Andy standing back from the wall, papers in hand as though she had yet to place them in the web that Steven Merrick had seemingly woven around himself.

She could hear the maniacal grin in Andy’s voice, “You would not believe the shit that this man has done.”

“Which is?”

\---

Nile, silent but curious, could wait no longer. She slowly made her way up to the loft behind Quynh. The other woman was stood beside Andy in front of a wall littered with paper and string. She knew that Quynh had recently developed a fondness for crime shows and to her the sight before her looked like an attempt at one of their suspect boards, or even a murder board as seen in a few shows. But the photos looked too real and the documents too official, Nile knew neither of them were writers. This had to be for an actual case of Andy’s. Nile stepped forward, mistakenly alerting the other two women to her presence when one piece of the wall’s puzzle stuck out to her.

She had never had to deal with the weasel that called himself Merrick, but she was well aware of what he did from all he’d written about Joe over the years. But, with all his plotting to get the next big headline she hadn’t suspected him of anything criminal. Yet right in front of her, in bold black and white print, was a headline from six years previously.

**‘Steven Merrick Jr, son of Pharmaceutical CEO, cleared of murder charges and ousted from high society’**

Upon further inspection, as if that one headline was not enough, Nile saw the great manner of other illicit activities Andy had seemingly dug up on the man. It was as if he had gone to an all you can eat crime buffet and tried a bit of everything. Nile’s eyes followed the string on the headline to see what it was connected to and found it was attached to not one but two different women. Both had tags next to their name’s and images that marked them as deceased under mysterious circumstances. Above them were two copies of marriage licenses, issued in the states of Connecticut and California. One for each woman and both had Steven Merrick listed as their spouse.

Without thinking through her words first, Nile openly asked, “Did he murder them?”

Andy continued looking on at her board. “I’m not at the liberty to say if he did or did not, but I would not say it isn’t out of the question.”

Quynh, who was now also sporting a similarly crazed grin, also seemed to be following the lines on the board. “Can I make the call?” Nile didn’t need to ask who Quynh was referring to with her question. With words and files that seemed to support his involvement in everything from racketeering and money laundering to insurance fraud and trafficking, Nile was almost positive that Quynh wanted to call the FBI on him.

“Not yet.”

“Then when?”

“We’ll give it a few hours. We can watch the carpet to judge everyone who isn’t Joe and Nicky and then call the Feds. Good?”

“I want a nice dinner when this is done then.”

“I did the work.”

“And I’m your wife, Andromache. I have to put up with your bullshit.”

“You just want an excuse to have a lavish dinner.”

“Wine, dine, and watch a criminal fall. That seems like a perfect dinner and show to me.”

While Nile knew she might be interrupting their moment, she knew they were at least subconsciously aware that she was still there. “Since the boys will be at their party, can I join?”

Quynh looked over at Nile with a grin that seemed to grace her entire face.

\---

In the future Joe would deny that he thought Nicky being dressed for the MET was hilarious. However, there were numerous other people in the room that had seen him smiling and had heard the laugh that he hadn’t been able to keep under wraps. To that, Joe had been on the receiving end of one of Nicolò’s death glares with an accompanying, “You’re lucky I love you.” But despite all of his complaints, as soon as different news outlets started covering the arrivals of different celebrities to the event it was Nicky that insisted that the TV be set to that so they could all be judgmental. The two designers that Nostrum had sent over with Joe and Nicky’s suits found this to be endlessly entertaining. Neither Joe nor Nicky would be leaving for quite some time so there was no need for anyone outside of those currently with them that needed to know if they were eating popcorn and commenting on all the aspects of the outfits they didn’t like. Again, something Nicky had decided needed to happen. The MET wasn’t the kind of museum that Nicky typically liked so three days before the gala he had decided that he’d become a fashion expert so he could harshly critique everyone’s outfits at the event. It was his way of subtly saying ‘I might be kind but I can also be 100% a bitch when I want to be.’ Needless to say, it had been an eventful three days for Joe.

The only times he wasn’t being judgmental of other people’s fashion choices was when they were visiting little Emilia. There was no need to be focused on other things when they could watch over the baby that they so desperately wanted to bring home.

Neither had been paying that much attention to the time, so when one of the many people with them declared, “It’s almost 8:45” they knew that it was time that they get their act together and start moving. They had fifteen minutes to get on the carpet to the gala.

\---

Usually, an art piece such as _The Nativity with St Francis and St Lawrence (The Adoration)_ would not be exhibited during the gala and would only be put up after. But with the museum director’s insistence, it was proudly displayed in a room all on its own so the attendees could view it and only it at that singular moment. No other pieces needed to be a distraction from the painting. Being the two to spearhead the conservation efforts on the painting, Lykon and Booker were already inside the gala and were simply waiting for the dinner to start. Both had attended before as members of the MET and neither found the event to be particularly interesting. Yes, there were performances that were enjoyable and a few scattered moments that were memorable but the event as a whole for both of them was not something they’d go out of their way to attend. Both figured that Joe and Nicky would join them in their boredom and lack of interest.

\---

Joe was a natural in front of a camera. With that smile of his and soulful eyes, it was no wonder why there always seemed to be some media outlet reporting something on him. Nicky knew firsthand how difficult it was to deny one’s self in the presence of all that was Joe. All the while, Nicky had never felt like such a fish out of water before. The only thing that was grounding him was Joe’s hand on the small of his back. He smiled when Joe did but knew that if there was anything people would pick apart about him in the tabloids tomorrow they would. On the first landing of the stairs Nicky came to accept that this was the first time that the media would be seeing him through their lens and not through his fiancé’s.

Some photographer, or maybe even a group of them, had caught Joe’s attention for a moment. Nicky followed Joe’s lead but in the short moment that he had looked away he noticed what seemed to be a reporter that wanted them to come over to her. She seemed rather jumpy and excitable.

“Yusuf,” Nicky spoke quietly and only in the other man’s ear. “I think there is someone that wants to talk to you.”

Joe turned his head and lifted Nicky’s chin up slightly with his unoccupied hand. “Someone wants to talk to us.”

That night, when the photos from the carpet began to make it to the internet, it would be the one of Joe and Nicky caught in their quiet conversation and looking head over heels in love with one another that everyone would seem to melt over.

Joe, still with his hand at the small of Nicky’s back, guided them over to where Nicky had seen the reporter. “Hello.”

Much to Nicky’s initial assumptions, she was just as excitable and jumpy as she seemed to be, but in a good way. “Well, if it isn’t Joe al-Kaysani and Nicolò di Genova. How are you two?”

Joe let out a short laugh, “Good, good.”

“Might I just say, we are all very excited that you came this year; and you brought your fiancé. You both look fantastic by the way.”

Nicky kept to himself, or at least tried to. “Thank you,” Joe said with yet another smile. As if he wasn’t capable of not smiling whenever Nicky was in the near vicinity.

“This is from Nostrum, if I heard correctly?”

Instead of answering with a yes or no, Joe simply nodded. “Made specifically for tonight. We went to their main atelier and I told them I didn’t care what I looked like so long as Nicky looked as though he belonged amongst the paintings of the Sistine Chapel.”

The reporter looked like she might have melted at that comment. “I take it your inspiration for tonight was the ceiling then, any particular reason?”

“Other than showing off the love of my life to the world in something nearly as stunning as he is?”

She looked to Nicky, who was avidly trying to avoid speaking, “If you don’t mind me asking, how long have you two been together?”

“Ten years.”

She dramatically looked away for a moment, “And he has an accent, as if you couldn’t be more perfect.” That got a smile and shy laugh out of Nicky.

\---

**POPSUGAR:** MET Gala: With Two Words, Joe al-Kaysani’s Fiancé, Nicolò di Genova, stole hearts everywhere

\---

The dinner turned out to be a rather dull affair. Even with Nicky’s quiet comments about the outfits he did not like there was not much else that interested Joe. That is until the dinner actually began. They had been seated beside an editor of a fashion magazine that Joe had already forgotten the name of. After the first course had been served, the editor asked the one question that everyone had seemingly wanted the answer for all night.

“How did you two meet?”

With a lovesick smile, Joe took a deep breath before starting.

It had been a hot day, that summer ten years ago. Aired and dry, just as it had been the past three weeks. For as disputed land as Jerusalem was, Joe thought that it seemed rather inhospitable to the passing tourist that was he.

Yusuf al-Kaysani, who had recently had to start calling himself Joe, returned back from one of the many shops he had been exploring that day. Weaving in and out of the city’s old stone roads, it was as easy to get lost on your own as it was to be accidently dragged into one of the many tourist groups. And Joe already had a track record at this point of getting into at least one tour group a day while out exploring. While he had been there for three weeks, he still felt like he had only scratched the surface in the way of exploring the sacred city. Tomorrow would be another day of exploration, just as the day before was and the one after it would be.

The hotel he was returning to, the Spanish House, still amazed him with its beautiful architecture and stunning views. Joe counted himself lucky, though he was unsure of just how many other places had room and board close by, to have found a place to stay in the Old City. He marveled at everything around him and had seen numerous other tourists gaze in wonder as well. A new pair of tourists, a man and woman had evidently checked in not too long ago as they were standing still and completely awestruck, Joe almost felt bad that he’d have to ask them to move so that he could get up to the second story. With a quick ‘excuse me,’ Joe was headed up the stairs and could see that there was a new occupant in the room next to his. The new person must have checked in while he had been out. Joe hadn’t liked the previous guest in that room, he had been rude and pushy; his name had started with a ‘Ke’ but Joe wasn’t bothered to remember what the rest was.

Just before he had stepped into his room, Joe heard a voice come from in the newly occupied room next door. Whoever it was sounded male and like they had just ran into something by mistake, the door was slightly open.

While staying at the Spanish House, Joe was determined to at least be friendly towards his temporary neighbors. “Not to be rude, but are you okay in there?” Joe stayed at his door so to not be too intrusive.

There was more grumbling that came from within the room, it had seemed to be getting closer and closer. A second later the door opened wider and the man that had seemed to run into something revealed himself. Joe had to remind himself to breath. He was in all black, which wasn’t the wisest decision in his opinion, but was beyond gorgeous. While he had last been in Paris Joe had gotten lost in the Greek and Roman Antiquities collection. He had found himself entranced by the marble figures that looked so lifelike it felt as though they were caught in between breaths. However beautiful those statues in perfect marble were, they could not hold a candle to the Adonis of a man in front of him. “Fine,” the man said. Joe knew he was done for that instant. His mother had always told him that he was a poet at heart, always loving but never in love, and that he’d one day find the vises that were good for him. Joe was looking this man, this Adonis stranger, in the eye and between his voice and his eyes, Joe knew he was done for.

“That’s good,” Joe tried to regain a sense of composure, he knew he was failing. Twenty three and loving everything but in love with nothing, he felt like he’d write love poems to this stranger and try to capture his likeness in pencil the minute he was back in his own room.

The two men stood there, transfixed on one another, for a while. Neither one wished to break first. Joe tried to rip himself away from the man who had unknowingly captured his entire soul and being with a single word. He peeled himself back into his room, without knowing that the stranger was still looking at him.

“ _Mi scusi,_ ” the voice said once more before Joe had closed his door.

He might have been a little too quick to see the other man once more, even if for a fraction of a second. “Yes?”

“Would you know when the Temple Mount opens?”

Joe had already been there, once or twice, when he had first got to Jerusalem. “8:30 am.” Tomorrow was a Thursday, it was open. Right? Joe thought it was.

“ _Grazie.”_

Joe’s love of everything spoke for him in that instant. “Were you planning on going in the morning?” This man was a stranger, Joe knew he had no need to interrogate him on his plans. He probably had his whole itinerary planned out down to the very last second. Joe’s head and heart were already beginning their argument, he didn’t need to intrude on the man. He should just---

“Yes.”

Again, Joe’s love of all spoke for him. “I can show you there if you’d like.” Joe’s head was now, suddenly, screaming at his heart for speaking out of turn.

“That would be nice,” the man said with a light smile.

Joe knew in that instant, he was fucked.

\---

Neither knew of the turmoil and dilemma that they had caused for the other behind closed doors.

\---

Joe went immediately to the nearest sketchbook of his; and by sketchbook, it was just a post it pad left by the staff for guests if they needed to write anything down. Desperate times called for desperate measures. All he could see in his mind’s eye was the man’s face and those gorgeous eyes of his. There was a quality to them, they held too much sorrow and depth for someone that looked younger than himself, that Joe felt like he could be mesmerized by them every day for the rest of his life. That was when the ‘oh shit’ set in. He didn’t even know this man’s name yet.

\---

Nicolò had never been one to deal with complicated feelings such as the ones associated with romantic love. He loved his family and loved God, both being factors as to why he had joined the church in the first place. But neither had prepared him for what it felt like to suddenly fall for the stranger next door. Never before had he been worried that he might stray from his religious path yet now everything seemed like it had been a lie. Those kind dark eyes were all he could see and that voice of his, Nicolò knew that he had to cast away any feelings he might have quickly developed for the man. He was going to be a priest, and while only in his second year of schooling, there was a strict code that had to be followed. Nicolò was not allowed to be in love with the strange man next door; though, he did not know which part of that statement, in love or the strange man, sounded worse at that moment.

\---

The next morning came both slowly and all too quick for either of them. Neither had slept well that night, their minds focused on the enigma that was the other. By the time it was seven in the morning, Joe had all but given up on sleep and had accepted that he’d only managed at most three hours. When he had decided that he’d had enough, he almost forgot that he had told the stranger next door that he’d show him to the Temple Mount in the morning. Almost was the operative word there, as if his brain would ever let him forget anything while staring into those eyes. He dressed quickly and left his room, to Joe’s surprise, the stranger was standing in front of his own door already. Like the day before, he was in all black. What he had not noticed the night before, when he had been too distracted by his face and desperately trying to not hall in love with him, was the white collar piece that stood out in stark contrast to all the black. Fuck.

“Hello.” Joe thinks he sounds like he did the night before. The stranger doesn’t need to know that his mind is currently screaming ‘fuck’ on repeat. He tries to act cool and collected, he has no way of knowing it this is getting across to the stranger. Joe extends a hand out to the stranger, “I’m Joe, by the way.” His heart wants him to say his name is Yusuf. His head is still too busy saying fuck to have an opinion on the matter.

The stranger takes his hand and every nerve in Joe’s body suddenly feels like it’s on fire. “Nicolò.” One word, _his damn name_ , made Joe’s heart clench. He now had a name to put with the face, and now also knew his job made him completely off limits. Joe didn’t know how long he had stood there, silent on the outside but screaming internally. “You were going to show me to the Temple Mount?” The question managed to draw Joe out of his own head. Little did Joe know that Nicolò was usually introduced himself as ‘Nico’ but for some unknown reason had been driven to say his given name instead. It was probably the same unknown reason that was beating up Joe for not saying Yusuf.

“Yeah, do you have your passport?” Nicolò looked taken aback by Joe’s question.

“Do I need it?”

“To get in? Yeah, it’s for security.”

Nicolò turned so to step into his room, presumably to get his passport. Joe hated that his eyes were lingering on him. He watched as the other man found his passport and slipped it into his pocket. Joe could feel his heart begin to race as Nicolò walked towards him. The other man locked and shut the door behind him. It was silent between the two of them as they headed for the stairs, that is until Joe’s brain was able to say something other than fuck.

“Wouldn’t you rather go to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre instead?” Joe could have smacked himself right then. “Sorry, I couldn’t help but notice…the…uh,” he gestured to his own neck, where Nicolò was wearing that damned white collar.

As if it were nothing at all, “I was there this morning, it was moving and quite beautiful.”

“Oh,” For the first time all morning, Joe’s brain actually did something helpful. He was reminded that it was not long after seven am and if Nicolò had already been down to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre then it was likely that he had been up for a while. The…um…the Temple Mount doesn’t open for another hour and some, do you want to look around first or get something to eat?” And there his brain went back to saying ‘fuck’. Joe’s heart had taken over his ability to speak and right now seemed to be deadest on the idea of asking out a priest. In the battle of his head verses his heart, Joe was well and truly fucked.

They were not outside the hotel. Nicolò smiled at him. Joe’s brain lost all function right in that instant. The mantra in Joe’s head suddenly changed, it was no less productive. ‘Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. I’m fucked. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.’

“That would be nice.”

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

“Anything in particular you’d like?”

“Have you been in the city long?” Nicolò sounded genuinely curious.

“A few weeks.”

If the first smile from Nicolò sent him into a frenzy, then the second one buried itself deep in his mind and would refuse to leave him for the rest of his life. “I trust your judgement then.”

_………………………._

“How are you with sweets?” Joe tried to note for the future, don’t let his heart be in charge of his mouth. In less than two minutes he’d managed to, essentially, ask out a priest and proceeded to try and butter up said priest with sweets. Today was going well. Joe was now just the shell of a human body, Nicolò had effectively and unknowingly melted everything inside him with those eyes, that face, and the voice of an angel.

\---

Joe quickly learned that Nicolò had, obviously, lived a sheltered life. He had also confirmed that he was from Italy, it was the accent that gave him away on that front though. The look he had given Joe at his first bite of kunafa had been one of complete amazement. Wide eyed and obviously startled by the taste, Joe was perfectly willing to give him the rest of the plate and go grab another for himself.

“This is breakfast?” Nicolò’s voice picked up towards the end and Joe couldn’t help but laugh.

“No, but it’s a good food to start the day with,” Joe said through a smile. In reality it wasn’t a ‘good’ food to start the day with, given that it was mostly cheese and sugar, but it gave enough of an energy boost to both of them. “We’ll find you some proper food after this, thought you might just want some sugar in your system first.”

Joe watched as Nicolò all but devoured the remainder if the plate. He made a note to himself that if he was going to be showing Nicolò around the city and subsequently where the best food placed he’d found were, then he’d have to think of where smaller portions had so the other man didn’t make himself sick. When they were leaving the sweets shoppe, Joe had to all but physically stop Nicolò from getting more to take with them. “If you eat any more you won’t have room for anything else,” Joe told him as though he were a five year old. In turn, Nicolò pouted like he was a five year old. At the sight of Nicolò, Joe knew that his heart had completely melted.

They were heading to the Temple Mount when Joe stopped them again, this time it was for falafels. Again, he was treated to the sight of Nicolò trying a new food for the first time. Once more, Nicolò was wide eyed at this new dish. “So, it’s a sandwich?” He was inspecting the pita and falafel combination he had been given with a certain curiosity that Joe was certain he had never seen on anyone before.

“In this way it is, it can be had other ways.” _And I’d willingly get every different variation for you if you just asked._ Without so much as thinking about it, Joe pulled out his phone. He couldn’t help but take a photo after Nicky had taken his first bite. Yet again, Joe stopped Nicolò from ordering another as they were about to leave. He had a whole plan figured out now.

\------

By midday the pair had already seen the Temple Mont as Nicolò had wished as well as the Dome of the Rock, he had been completely unaware that Joe had photographed his wonderstruck gaze at seeing it. While Joe might have preferred to have drawn the sight, he had felt the need to have an image of it that instant. After that they had carried on exploring the city. Joe had discovered that Nicolò had never tried shakshuka before, he was half convinced that the other man had never tried anything that wasn’t considered Italian and was determined to take him to a place that served it outside of the old city. The only problem was that they had been taking a short cut through the Old City Market and had near instantaneously lost Nicolò to the stalls, despite being able to see the man still. Joe had walked through before and felt as though he had seen everything yet watching Nicolò and his wonder made him question if he had seen anything before. Nicolò leaned in to see the smaller objects sat on shelves and reached to just barely touch the delicate fabrics above his head.

They had been leaving the Dome of the Rock when the topic of religion itself had come up. Joe had felt comfortable enough to tell Nicolò that he still thought of himself as Muslim but had lost the sense of strictly adhering to religion when he had moved out of his family’s home and started taking acting more seriously. He had even told him about how his family had once had a cat that liked to sit next to his Baba during prayer and his Amma had bought the cat its own little prayer mat. Joe felt like he could have melted at the look in Nicolò’s eyes when he said that, as well as the absolute joy that had radiated from them with what he had said after.

“Since we’d gotten the cat in the beginning of the year, Amma was insistent that we get its own little Christmas tree since we didn’t know what religion she was. The next year my sisters made a little menorah for her too.”

When Nicolò confessed that he was studying to become a catholic priest, Joe felt as though the world was shattering all around him at the confirmation. His family had always teased him for always falling in love, they’d have had a field day with him now. Here he was with a man he had just met, that his sisters would say was ‘defiantly his type’, talking with him and feeling as though they had known each other for a millennium. Nicolò had moved on from that like it was nothing at all, Joe was at least glad he had managed to disguise his devastation from that revelation.

Nicolò hadn’t mentioned it any further. Joe, in the market, assumed that Nicolò would also insist that he didn’t need the blue scarf he had been eyeing. He had already said that he didn’t need to have anything that he didn’t need, with what Joe knew of Nicolò he’d assume that that scarf fit in that category. “I need to step away for a second,” he told Nicolò. He fully expected the other man to be too engrossed by the shoppe to even notice him.

Joe stepped away, the back of his mind already deciding that he was going to buy that scarf for Nicolò while the front was in a state of nuclear meltdown. He needed desperately to call someone, anyone, and just have them tell him to stop. Andy and Quynh were out of the question, they’d encourage him, and Lykon would just keep asking questions about Nicolò which wouldn’t be helpful in the long run. That left Booker. Joe didn’t even leave time to wonder if his friend was awake at the moment.

After 5 rings, the phone finally connected. “Sébastien.”

There was an almost demonic groan on the other end of the line. “…This better be good…”

Joe caught himself for a second. "Have you been drinking?”

“You did not call me at 5 am to ask about my drinking habits, Yusuf.”

‘It was noon?’ Joe questioned to himself, ‘Not 5 am.’

“Jerusalem. New York City.” Booker said over the line. Joe could hear something move quite close to the phone that muffled it slightly. “What do you want?”

Joe short circuited for a second just thinking about Nicolò. “I met someone.”

“You meet a lot of people,” Booker’s voice sounded like he was speaking through a pillow, everything was muted.

“But he’s not like other people.”

“Hang up, ask him on a date, leave me alone.”

“Séb, he’s going to be a priest.” He whispered into the phone, “I might be falling in love with him.” Joe hoped that Booker hadn’t heard that bit though.

“Then you will be alone for the rest of your life.”

“What do I do?”

“Go ask Lykon and let me sleep.”

“Lykon isn’t going to be helpful.”

“He’ll be awake enough to tell you not to go after him.” Lykon was visiting family in Greece at the moment, he would in fact be awake enough to deal with the situation. But, he’d also use the excuse to come meet Nicolò and tell Joe that he was falling in love with the man to his face. The line went dead before Joe could say anything to counter Booker. He did respond however, he sent Booker the photo of Nicolò eating a falafel. There was no way he would be getting a response anytime soon.

Not wanting to call Lykon and be interrogated, Joe returned to Nicolò who was still enamored by the scarfs. “They’re beautiful,” he heard Nicolò whisper. Part of Joe wanted to tell the man that they paled in comparison to him. Before Nicolò could argue, Joe asked how much the seller was asking for the scarf that had caught his companion’s eye. Joe and the seller went back and forth on the price for a bit before they agreed on a price. He paid and handed the piece of fabric to Nicolò.

“I don’t need this.” Nicolò tried to argue.

“It’s a gift,” Joe responded. ‘And it matches your eyes,’ he didn’t realize that he had said that aloud. Five simple words were all it took for Nicolò to confirm what he had been suspecting about himself for months now.

Nicolò made sure to keep his own thought so himself for now. ‘I’d leave for you.’

\---

It was almost dark out when they returned to their hotel. Both had spent the day trying to keep from the other that they each had been falling hopelessly in love with one another. They had each hid away in their different rooms for an hour or so before the allure of being with one another grew too strong to keep them separate. The sun had been setting when they had snuck up to the rooftop of the hotel. Visitors weren't allowed up there, but Joe had been staying there long enough that he knew where to avoid getting caught on his way up. It had been a surprise to him, Nicolò’s willingness to follow, but Joe had welcomed it anyway. Their argument about religion had stopped many hours ago, now they only spoke as though they were two long lost friends recounting stories of what had happened since they had last seen one another. 

Joe had not wanted to admit to himself that he was comfortable around, and much less falling for, this would be priest. But Nicolò had made it far too easy for him. The man was easy on the eyes and the way he spoke was like music to Joe's ears. While they had been walking through the old city, Joe had had to stop himself from getting lost in his eyes on numerous occasions. Now, however, he wasn't so sure he'd be able to stop himself. Nicolò was laying back on the roof, beside Joe, and going on about something Joe had long lost track of. Unconsciously, Joe moved so that he was resting on the back of his forearms so to look at the other man. Never before had he felt what "drunk on love" meant, he was starting too now. Part of him was terrified because of it. Nicolò’s voice trailed off into nothing when he turned his head to catch Joe's gaze. He pulled himself up so that he was level with Joe. Joe was lost in Nicolò's eyes in the low light. In that instant, Joe knew that no matter what he had lost the internal battle of not falling for Nicolò. He knew that, by now, he was giving Nicolò the drowning look; he was watching Nicolò as though he were the ocean and Joe himself was desperate to drown. Nicolò was saying something, Joe could see this, but every word got lost in the air between them. 

In an airy voice, "What?" Joe knew his voice would have gone unheard, had Nicolò not been so close. 

Nicolò moved closer to Joe and hovered close to his lips. What little tension there was between them faded into obscurity as Nicolò moved forward to kiss Joe. It was light at first, Joe thinking he should move back from Nicolò. But Nicolò, he was addicting and Joe couldn't get enough of him. His heart screamed out for this man he had suddenly fallen in love with, all the while knowing deep down that he'd never love another like he did Nicolò, while his head screamed at him to think. Nicolò was going to become a catholic priest, someone who took a vow of chastity. Joe didn't know at what point that vow would be or had been taken. He knew that this man, this would be priest, now held his heart and soul in his hands and would never relinquish it. Joe was okay with that, but he knew he had to stop. Painfully, he drew himself away and if Nicolò appeared to be chasing after him with his lips then it was just a figment of Joe's imagination. 

"Yusuf," Nicolò 's voice was quiet but Joe melted anyway. He had said his name in a way no one ever had before. Little did the man know that Joe was now just like butter in his hands. 

"We shouldn't," he sounded scared, fearful of the intense love that had not been there yesterday that existed for Nicolò and only Nicolò.

Nicolò fell back to his forearms, Joe was just a bit out of reach for him. They shouldn't have been kissing, and Nicolò knew he shouldn't be falling for him. But here he was, less than twenty four hours after meeting this hurricane of a man and questioning every life decision he'd ever made. He had come to Jerusalem to see the holy city, a city that was of the utmost importance to his faith. Nicolò had come here on a summer break quickly to do nothing but soak up the atmosphere and religion of the storied place. But here he was in a state he had never expected to be in. He had never told his family that he was interested in men exclusively but at the time he had figured that out he was already determined to go into the priesthood. But here he was, in Jerusalem taking a short break from his schooling in divinity and falling desperately in love with a man he had just met. And if looks were anything to go off of, he was falling to. 'We shouldn't,' Joe's words echoing in his head. They shouldn't be up on the rooftop breaking the rules. They shouldn't have been able to get along so well with their vastly different points of view on religion. They shouldn't have been able to find, even if temporary, a home in one another. They shouldn't be kissing. And they shouldn't've been falling desperately in love with one another. But life finds a way.

Joe didn't see the look of determination cross Nicolò 's face. He didn't see his sudden decision and the courage that he now felt. All Joe saw was that suddenly Nicolò was kissing him again, deep and passionately but lacking any true finesse. He had moved so that he was almost on top of Joe, his body leaning over him and his legs on either side of Joe's left one. He brought his hand up, only one, to the nape of Joe's neck where he could both rest his hand there to keep him close while also threading his fingers through the cloud like, soft curls. The other hand was on the ground, bracing him up and dangerously close to where Joe's hand was resting. Nicolò felt as one of Joe's hands took purchase on the back of his head and the other at his waist drawing him closer. 

In a quick second to gather at least a little air to continue, Joe whispered against Nicolò’s lips, "You're going to be a priest, Nicolò, we shouldn't be doing this."

Nicolò straightened them up, now with one leg on either side of Joe's hips. He brought his other hand to join the other in holding Joe close to him. Equally breathless he replied, "At this rate," Nicolò quickly kissed him. "I won't be," he was accenting every break with another kiss. "The only being I will ever worship," this time he kissed him not on his lips but high on his cheek as though he was loving across the other man's face. "Will be," this kiss was just next to his ear. "You."

Joe was not a man of restraint. He was one of fiery passion and concentrated devotion, and the man in front of him had all but said he was in love with him. There was no deity nor soul alive that could stop him. Joe kissed Nicolò with every ounce of love he could muster up un his being. In that instance, even if Nicolò hadn’t been aware of it, Joe was willing to hand over all that was himself to this man. He’d read poets between takes on set and was well acquainted with the idea and want to meet someone that made you think ‘I’m going to marry this one,’ it had taken less than a day for Joe to come to that realization. Nicolò would be his present and his future.

Joe tangled his hand up in Nicky’s hair, holding him close, while he braced the pair of them with his other. Nicky, sweet, loving, passionate Nicky, had all but abandoned any notion of being the one to keep them semi upright. He seated himself in Joe’s lap, as he quickly learned the fine art of a passionate kiss, and cradled Joe’s face in his hands. They were completely and utterly lost in one another. Time had stopped and the rest of the universe ceased to exist. All that existed was each other.

However, one other thing did exist. Air. “We should go somewhere else,” Joe whispered against Nicky’s lips. _We’re not supposed to be up here in the first place_ was what he meant. Joe tried to pull back, so they could at least hide away in one of their hotel rooms and not be at risk of staff finding them on the roof. Nicky wasn’t having any of it however. As Joe tried to pull back, Nicky pulled him closer. “We can continue this elsewhere, somewhere staff won’t be mad about.” Joe had never had a proper drink before, yet he felt drunk on Nicky.

Nicky knew not where this newfound confidence was coming from. He had never kissed a man before, much less been so certain he was in love with one. Yet here Joe was turning Nicky’s whole world upside down. Had anyone asked him yesterday morning what he’d be doing at the end of the week he would have confidently said that he’d be going back to Italy to finish out seminary, but now he wasn’t sure he’d be able to do that. “Yours,” he whispered, his breath mingling with Joe’s.

They made their way down from the roof as quickly as they had made their way up, suffice to say it was not that fast at all. Every few moments, either Joe or Nicky would stop the other for another kiss which would slow their process. By the time they reached the walkway where other patrons might see them they had regained some semblance of composure. They walked close by one another towards their side by side rooms. Each time Joe’s hand brushed against him, Nicolò felt as though his whole body were on fire. Joe was quick to open the door, just as Nicolò was quick to push him inside. Never before had Nicolò thought of himself being someone who felt the need to constantly kiss someone. The door shut firmly behind them. Nicolò quickly found himself being pressed up against the door and kissed within an inch of his life. Oh, how the tables had turned.

Once they’d made it further than a foot inside his room and could spend more than five seconds apart, Joe could finally step back and see the state that he had left Nicolò in. He was sure that he wasn’t off that great himself but never before had Joe felt as though a person needed to be carved in perfect marble as much as Nicolò in that moment. Nicolò was sitting down now and his hair was sticking up in all directions, a side effect of Joe running his fingers through the strands, with an awh struck expression on his face. But there was something hidden under the awh struck look, something just barely visible on the edges. Trepidation. Joe thought he might have an idea as to why.

He kneeled down on the ground in front of Nicolò and took both his hands in his own. “What is it?” Even though he had an idea of what might have caused Nicolò’s sudden trepidation, he’d much rather hear the other man say it aloud as confirmation.

“Nothing,” he tried to disguise his words, Joe could hear right through them.

“Somethings the matter,” Joe brushed a fallen piece of hair from Nicolò’s eyes. “What’s the matter?”

Nicolò was quiet for a long moment. The sudden confidence he had felt on the roof was now gone. “You’re going to expect more from me.”

Joe had been right. And Nicolò couldn’t have been more wrong. “I’m not a one night stand kind of guy and I’m not someone who would put out on the first date, Nico.” Nicolò thought he might melt at him saying Nico. But Joe was cringing internally at the word ‘date’. It felt so childish, so naive. “I want to get to know you, if that’s alright with you. And if you’ll allow it, I want this to be something that builds to something. So no, I’m not expecting anything of you. The fact that you kissed me even once would have been enough when I thought, this morning, that I’d never be able to share that with you. But here we are. If you’ll allow it, I want this to be something more for both of us for as long as we have and I don’t either of us are ready for that just yet.”

Nicolò was stuck facing a tsunami of emotions tonight. First his realization that he liked Joe romantically, then that he was quickly falling in love with him, followed by the confidence and rush that had accompanied kissing the man across from him, and finally the trepidation and relief that came from the same man not expecting anything further of him. Nicolò wasn’t one for crying but he could have easily been persuaded in that moment. “Oh, alright.” Joe leaned up and placed a kiss on his forehead.

He stood up and made his way towards the door. “Where are you going?” Joe called from where he was, still seated on the floor.

Nicolò was a touch confused. “My room?” If Joe wasn’t expecting anything further from him, he didn’t see the need to stay.

Joe deflated in an instant. “Oh.” Suddenly an ice cold fear ran through Joe’s veins.

“Why?”

Now it was Joe’s turn to tread lightly on his own words. “Well…you can stay…if you want…we don’t have to do anything.”

Nicolò’s hand ghosted over the door knob. “Stay?”

“I mean…it’s nice having you here.”

“But I have to sleep at some point?”

“Well, there’s enough room that you could sleep here?”

“But there’s only one bed?”

“You could join me?” …………. “ _I’m being too forward aren’t I? I’m sorry. If you want to go back to your own room I won’t keep you any longer.”_

Nicolò watched as Joe seemed to grow embarrassed by his own words. “Why?”

Joe, ever the poet, spoke up; his voice was so quiet that Nicolò could barely hear him. Maybe even Joe himself could only barely hear his own words. “I feel like I’ve only just found you and I can’t bear to lose you just yet.”

That was now they had, somehow, ended up sound asleep in Nicolò’s room. Both had agreed that Nicolò’s bed felt more comfortable, well Joe had found he’d agree to almost anything Nicolò said. He knew his family would tease him when they found out about Nicolò, there was no escaping it. When he was younger, his mother had repeatedly teased him about being one of those love sick poets that mused on about a lost lover and that one day he’d find someone that managed to ensnare him so thoroughly and so quickly that he wouldn’t be able to question it. Back then he’d said she was wrong but how painfully right had she been. She’d love Nicolò, they all would.

When Nicolò woke the next morning, he was startled awake by the feeling of someone’s arm over his body and his back being pressed to their chest. It was a few short moments of absolute fear before everything came back to him. Not this wasn’t someone who had kidnapped him off the street. No this wasn’t some man who was going to force him to do things he didn’t want to. It was the realization that both himself and the man behind him were still clothed that brought everything back. This was Joe, kind, sweet, and poetic Joe. This was the man that had taken him around the city yesterday and Nicolò had first experienced the sensation of falling in love. Oddly enough, he felt like this was it for him. He never wanted to fall for anyone else, never wanted to be with anyone else.

The weight of Joe’s arm was comfortable, not to heavy and not possessive, Nicolò couldn’t find it in himself to move it. Instead, he snuggled back into Joe’s chest and simply thought of everything that had brought him to this very moment. He had been ten when he figured out he was gay and in fear of what his family might think he had told them that he wanted to be part of the church, that way he’d never have the option to disappoint his family. They were all old-school and traditional, ten year old Nicolò had been terrified that they’d throw him out of the family. He’d gone on to tell his older brother, who was only eleven months older than him, that he could no longer play with him and the other boys because he had to study.

Nicolò found himself falling back asleep, not giving a damn about the world outside.

When Joe had woken up a few hours later he found that Nicolò was still in bed and sound asleep. He could see the clock on the bedside table read 11:00 am. Joe looked towards the chair that was seated on the other side of the bed, the side facing Nicolò. The artist in Joe couldn’t resist the temptation. He forced himself out of bed to grab his sketchbook.

Joe found himself lost in the story of how they met but was peeved that he wasn’t able to finish it. Nicky’s hand had clasped onto his wrist but he was leaning away from Joe. He looked towards him and noticed that his love was watching another person’s phone screen. Looking away for a half second, Joe noticed that at some point Lykon and Booker had taken to sitting across from them. He looked around for a second and noticed that there were numerous other tables that seemed to have clusters of people all avidly watching someone’s phone.

“What’s going on?” Joe asked Lykon and Booker. He had been so engrossed in the story of how he and Nicky met that he had lost reality for a short while.

The words “The FBI is arresting Steven Merrick,” were six words Joe never thought he’d hear.

Someone at the end of the table asked allowed, as though they wanted the input of everyone at the table. “Do you think he’ll actually say what happened to Nadia?”

In an instant the table seemed to explode with conversation. “Who is Nadia?” Joe heard Nicky ask to someone who was equally engrossed in the apparent arrest that was unfolding.

“His wife, according to him she went back to Russia a few weeks back.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The rest of the Jerusalem story will be making an appearance soon.
> 
> Cheers!  
> Loki
> 
> [Tumblr ](https://fetchmeabook.tumblr.com)  
> 


	14. Chapter 14

As it seemed, everyone had an issue with Steven Merrick. It also seemed that they were all watching him be arrested, seemingly engrossed by the footage. Joe looked back to Nicky, who was still watching the man be arrested. From what Joe had seen, the man in question had yet to leave his house and the front door had yet to be broken down.

Over the years there seemed to be no end to the issues he had had with Steven Merrick. In his earlier days, the man had been one of the first to claim to have a tell all interview with someone who had dated Joe. The issue was that Joe had never met the woman that he had “dated” but it had been that interview that sparked all the serial dater rumors. And that had only been the start of it. The man craved attention and recognition on an otherworldly level and his arrogance seemed to know no bounds. He thought the world of himself and that her were welcome anywhere. Joe had once obtained a Peace Order against the man after he was caught stalking him and trying to break in. The break in attempt had been futile to say the least. However, when he had broken that peace order all that had resulted was a fine being sent to Merrick. That was the one reason why he hadn’t gone through with the two restraining orders. Joe, and everyone around him, was well aware of the idea that he had connections that could get him the smallest punishment imaginable, if any at all.

But what was going on now seemed far beyond a violation of a peace or restraining order.

Now that he was actively paying attention to it, it seemed that everyone else in the room was dead silent. Not a sound could be heard other than the various different news outlets on phones. In his near vicinity, Joe could hear at least four different news networks broadcasting Merrick’s arrest live. From what he could hear, none of them were Fox News…they liked him far too much, especially after he’d buddied up to one of the wannabe’s from 725 on 5th Ave. Later today they’d probably be reporting that it was a hoax or misunderstanding and that Merrick had done nothing wrong.

The sound of a heavy object colliding with a door brought Joe back to reality. Predictable as always, Merrick’s arrogance was not going to let him go peacefully. Joe looked over at the nearest phone to see officers on the tiny screen barreling in the house demanding that he come out. For safety sake, the news crews didn’t move. A commotion could be heard from inside the house. While the command couldn’t be heard over the mics, three paramedics ran into the house with their own equitment in toe. Something had happened inside but it, from the sound of it, wasn’t a gun being fired. Joe had heard through the grapevine on multiple occasions that Merrick refused to own a gun himself but wasn’t against any body guards of his owning them. Another enigma that he’d never got an answer for was why Merrick needed a body guard; no one had the answer for that one. Though Joe wouldn’t discount the idea that they may find out after Merrick’s arrest.

From the newscast footage all was quiet; not a sound could be heard inside the house nor was a soul exiting the premisise. All was quiet. All was still.

\---

**BREAKING NEWS:** Police announced that they have found an unidentified man’s body in Central Park

“Authorities have reportedly found a second body in Central Park not too far from the unnamed woman was discovered. Authorities have yet to publicly name the woman yet with growing suspicion it is speculated they have already identified her. With the unidentified man’s proximity to where she was discovered it is unknown if his case is at all related to hers.”

\---

Steven Merrick had not gone quietly. News outlets later reported that he had attempted to weild an axe in defence against the officers that had entered his residence. Prior to him being cuffed he had managed to hit one of the agents which had lead to the paramedics being called for, the agent’s condition was kept from the public without a word other than ‘critical’. At that point Merrick was restrained and arrested. A cheer had erupted in the silent dining room when it was seen that t cuffed Merrick was being removed from his residence. There was no love towards the man in that room.

\---

“Nicolò, babe, we can keep watching at home.”

Joe was interested in seeing what happened but Nicky was invested. If Joe had become indifferent to Steven Merrick then Nicky absolutely hated the man. While Joe had loudly ranted about Merrick Nicky silently stewed in his hatred. He enjoyed watching the man be taken away in cuffs, likely on par or more than anyone else in the room.

For what felt like the first time since he’d seen that phone be turned to the news, Nicky looked up at Joe. “No afterparty?”

“No afterparty. Home.”

He flashed Joe that smile of his that always melted his entire world. Nicky extended out a hand from where he sat. It was his way of silently telling Joe to take him home, just as he had when he turned his back on the life he should have gone towards many years ago; the life that hadn’t included Joe that he’d found impossible to face.

\---

Seven days of bliss as it was.

And three hours of pure anguish.

Tucked away in his luggage, Nicolò had a return plane ticket to Rome and a train ticket that was meant to take him back to Genova. All paid for by his parents. They were expecting him to be perfect for them, just as Carina was and just as Fabrizio was.

For the first time in his life, Nicolò was faced with the possibility of being free from their influence and free from their dominance in his life. When he was younger he’d assumed that they were doing what was best for him, send him off to seminary when he was older so to avoid anything they viewed as scandalous. He had spent seven days bathed in the pure light there was to offer, the kind that came only from loving whole heartedly ad that love being returned.

But seven days were nothing in comparison to the last ten years. For ten years he’d known what his future would be like, he’d known what life had set out for him. However, those ten years had been defined by his parents. His future had been determined by his parents. He thought that they’d known what was best for him.

Nicolò was stuck with, what he felt like, an indomitable decision: lose the family he’d always known and loved or lose the man who was quiet possibly the great love of his life that he’d only met seven days prior.

As much as he loved his Yusuf, he knew his family would never allow for it to go on. For the first time, Nicolò was thankful that Yusuf was one to sleep in every chance he got. With a heavy heart and pained tears in his eyes, Nicolò packed what he had brought with him. Not just to Yusuf’s room but all he had had with him in the city. It had taken three days for them to decide that there was no need for two separate rooms, everything he had was already in Yusuf’s anyway.

Nicolò caught himself looking over to his still sleeping lover. Without prompting, every beautiful thing he had yet to say to his dear Yusuf came flooding out in an instant. The ‘I love you’ in every language he knew of, to the genuine ‘my heart will never belong to another’ that Nicolò thought he’d imagined, and the declarations that they must be soulmates no matter how foolish it sounds all came out one after another with no end in sight. He knew that the waterworks were to start even before he left the room. His tears were already threatening to escape. As he quietly repacked his bags, Nicolò dug out the envelope that had both tickets in it. While he was zipping up his suitcase, it was lain on the ground next to him. Despite how quiet he was being and how heavy a sleeper he had learned Yusuf to be, Nicolò desperately hoped that his lover would wake up; that Yusuf would suddenly be by his side to tell him that he didn’t need to be the perfect son his parents wanted him to be and that he didn’t have to go back to Italy to be a priest they now wanted him to be. And above all else, he wanted Yusuf to ask him to go back to New York when he left. 

After Nicolò had finished repacking, with Yusuf still sound asleep, he saw one of Yusuf’s sketchbooks sitting on the room’s desk. It was open to what he what assumed was the only blank page in the book. With a heavy heart he wrote out, what he believed to be, the last words he’d ever say to his soulmate. In these last moments he’d willingly think of Yusuf as that, the rest of him already knew that but his mind seemed slow to catch up. He didn’t think Yusuf was going to waist his time coming after him anyway, therefore he didn’t need to know.

\---

_Amore mio,_

_Mi dispiace._

_N._

\---

"NICO!" Joe shouted through the morning crowd at Ben Gurion Airport. He'd been stuck in a car the last hour, panicked out of his mind. What if Nicolò was already gone? What if he'd already lost him? He'd mentioned to Joe that his family had been expecting him back in Genova after the week was over, so Joe would at least know where to look for him? But how many Nicolò di Genovas were in Genova? "NICO!" He was running now.

Joe caught sight of a green suitcase that he recognized instantly, it had spent most of the last week sat open on his floor. "NICOLÒ!" As much as he cared for other people and part of him cared how other people saw him but none of that mattered now. People who had heard him, either through his voice or from his frantic footsteps, began moving out of the way for him. It was likely as a means of not being barreled down above anything else. Damn the world. Damn everyone else. Joe couldn't care less about anyone else but Nicolò now, not even himself. The love of his life was headed back to Italy and all he had left was a note saying he was sorry. 

Nicolò stopped. He turned to face Joe. "Yusuf?" He whispered in a broken voice once Joe was close to him. All the walls he had tried to build up around himself and his heart in the ride to the airport crashed in an instant when Joe's hands came to cup his face. 

"Please don't go," it was barely above a whisper. Joe, who had been firm in his newfound love and willing to declare it to the world, was just as broken as Nicolò. He wasn't meant to be someone who spoke in heartbreaking whispers and on the verge of endless sobs; yet here he was, his heart breaking and his soul being crushed. "I love you, Nicolò, please don't go." The last hastily built was came crashing down when Joe leaned in to his forehead. 

"I have to," like an Indian monsoon, the floodgate of tears was unleashed. "I have to. I have to," he kept trying to say but lacked the conviction to do so convincingly. The sobs that wracked his body muddled his words.

'Follow your heart, dear, it will lead you where you need to be.' Roberta's words were ringing in his head. They were the only thing he could hear over the sounds of his violent tears. 'Do what is in your heart naturally, not what our parents forced to be there.'

Nicolò hadn't called his brother, or even his older sister, but they had always been there for him. A quiet voice that loved in the dark corners of his mind dated to ask if they'd accept him if he openly loved his Yusuf and turned against their parents and the church. Fabrizio, in all his moments of blind stupidity, had his moments of wise brilliance, no doubt influenced by their oldest sister. 'No matter what, I will always be here for you,' had been the words he had told Nicolò the day he left for seminary. They had been quietly whispered in his ear as his slightly older brother hugged him. He had always been the most suspicious of Nicolò's siblings when it came to him joining the church.

That cruel little devil that resided in the darkest recesses of his mind wanted Nicolò to pull away from Yusuf, for him to get on his plane and never to turn back, for him to never know the full extent of Yusuf’s love. He’d locked away this part of himself for so long, was a week truly enough for him to want to throw the life he’d planned away?

Nicolò felt Yusuf’s fingers tangle in the hair at the nape of his neck. It sent a chill down his spine that this moment was what would define the rest of his life. Rarely could life be defined as before and after. Before he had met Yusuf, Nicolò had been determined to go into the priesthood so that he never had to face the truth of himself. Before he’d met Yusuf he would have gotten on the plane to Rome without a second thought. The Nicolò of before didn’t know what ‘being in love’ felt like.

The Nicolò of after did.

Chaos from the shouts of travelers and the movement of suitcases was silenced once more; drowned out at the memory of Roberta’s words to him before she hung up. _‘I learned to be myself from you, and Fabrizio, and Carina. I never learned how to be me from our parents. They didn’t accept me, but that doesn’t matter because I followed my heart. Follow your heart, love. This Yusuf, if you love him in your very heart go to him. Follow your heart and what it tells you to do. You love with every fiber of your being when you accept something. If you love him, truly love him, love him with every fiber of your being and follow your heart to what’s right. Make whatever decision your heart tells you. I love you. Fabrizio loves you. Carina loves you. I know I can speak for them when I say this, it doesn’t matter if our parents don’t accept you because we always will. If you’re pushing yourself to do something your heart is no longer in while it lives elsewhere then it’s worthless now. You’ve let love and a choice into your heart, in a way that’s never been there before, let that guide you, big brother. And when you’ve made your decision, come find me in New York.’_

Yusuf was silent.

“I..,” Nicolò caught himself for a moment. Yusuf had told him he loved Nicolò from the confines of their hotel room, he’d whispered it to him as they walked the city. But Nicolò had quickly learned that he showed his love through actions, he had yet to verbalize the very words seared into his soul. “I love you.” Nicolò couldn’t stop the words that spilled from his mouth. “I love you,” with his eyes closed, his pushed his forehead to Yusuf’s. “I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you.” It seemed that three short words and without a second thought was all it took to make a single decision. “I can’t go. I love you. I can’t go because I love you.” He opened his eyes to look at his Yusuf. Barely above a whisper, “I can’t go back to that life.”

Neither one knew how long they stayed like that, in that hazy little bubble. They couldn’t tell anyone how long they stood there. They couldn’t tell anyone how they managed to recollect Nicolò’s bags after they’d already been taken. They couldn’t tell anyone how they managed to get back to the hotel.

Nicolò’s bags rejoined Yusuf’s on the floor. His carryon was beside Yusuf’s at the door. The shoes he’d complained about everyday sat beside Yusuf’s just outside the bathroom. He found himself sat out on the balcony in the arms of the love of his life as he had every morning for the last week.

His head was leaned on Yusuf’s shoulder. “You said you were living in New York City.”

“I do.”

“I’ve never been to New York City.”

“You mentioned.”

“I’ve never been across the Atlantic.”

Yusuf was silent for a moment. “My offer still stands. Come to New York with me, my love.” He could feel Nicolò’s smile.

They stayed in Jerusalem an extra week; a week of letters being sent out and notices being sent. He’d even managed to get the address of where Roberta was living now. Nicolò explained to Yusuf how she’d ran away a year before and ended up in New York among what she called her “new family” but that she’d never turned her back on her siblings because they hadn’t been the ones to turn their backs on her. Yusuf and he packed their bags, side by side this time with the same destination in mind. Nicolò looked back at the hotel room that became their home for two blissful weeks, despite its one day of tragedy; Yusuf was already at the door. After he’d taken in the room for one last time, Nicolò looked back at Yusuf. He extended a hand out to his love but he left the request unsaid.

_Take me home._

\---

The TV was on all night. Nicky had made popcorn to watch the reruns of Steven Merrick’s arrest. And the only time he hadn’t been watching that was when the news had run a second report on another body being found in Central Park.

“It was bound to happen at some point,” Joe had lost track of how many bowls of popcorn his fiancé had gone through. It was past 4 am at this point but Nicky was still invested.

When his phone rang, he hadn’t even reacted. It was Joe that answered. “Hello?”

“Joe? It’s Celeste.”

“Good morning Celeste. Steven Merrick has been arrested, Nicky is quite invested in the saga. Did you want to talk to him?”

“If I tell you, I’ll guess that you’ll tell him.”

“Got me there.”

“The police just came by and, this is off the record that I’m saying this. They came to talk to the head of the NICU. But, the man that they found in Central Park was ran through the system to try and find out who he is. They don’t know his name yet but he was a positive paternal match to Emilia and the woman has been confirmed to be Nadia Merrick.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'll admit that I don't have any 'based on' images for their MET Gala outfits, I just searched 'Italian Renaissance' on the MET's website and narrowed the year to between 1400 and 1600. [MET page I was using ](https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search#!?q=italian%20renaissance&perPage=20&searchField=All&sortBy=Relevance&offset=0&pageSize=0&era=A.D.%201400-1600)  
> And if anyone wants to comment on the DNA test being too quick here, I know.  
> Also, I've got a hunt-a-serial-killer au in the works, hence why this has taken so long to update. The first chapter will probably be up before the next chapter of this so there will be a link for it in the next note here.
> 
> Cheers!  
> Loki
> 
> If you want I'm on Tumblr here [fetchmeabook ](https://fetchmeabook.tumblr.com)  
> 

**Author's Note:**

> This might be a few chapters, I don't know yet. If it does become a multi chapter thing, updates will likely be sporadic at best.
> 
> If you want, feel free to come see if there are any writing updates on my Tumblr @fetchmeabook
> 
> Cheers!  
> Loki


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